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How to Clean and Cook Morel Mushrooms | Sautéed Morel Mushrooms Recipe
See how to cook Morel mushrooms with 3 easy recipes that are delicious. Healthier and tastes better then using artery clogging butter.
Morel mushrooms are loaded with health benefits and we don’t want to offset those by cooking them in a way that is unhealthy. In this article you will find the healthiest way to cook mushrooms.
If you are lucky enough to find some fresh Morel mushrooms during the season, do be sure to verify that you didn’t accidentally pick a false Morel though.
As for cooking the Morel mushrooms, if you look online at the majority of the recipes you will see 90% of them telling you to melt a stick of butter in a pan and then to fry your morel mushrooms in the butter.
While I am sure that tastes good, it is not exactly the most healthy way to eat such a healthy choice edible mushroom. Morel mushrooms are loaded with health benefits so why offset that with a ton of saturated fat?
Now let’s take a look at how to clean Morel mushrooms…
How To Wash and Clean Morel Mushrooms
Before we get into the different recipes below, let’s talk about how you will want to clean your Morel mushrooms:
1) First you will soak Morel mushrooms in cold salt water for about 3 minutes. While they are soaking you can shake them around to get out any bugs and dirt.
2) Remove them from the salt water and rinse them off and dry them well with paper towels (don’t soak them too long or they will get mushy).
3) Now slice the morel mushroom in half length ways.
Now, after learning how to wash morels lets look at the different healthy recipes…
The Healthiest Way How to Cook Morel Mushrooms
We will start our first recipe off with how to make them taste delicious when sauteing the Morels…
1) Sautéed Morel Mushrooms Recipe
If you must use butter in your recipe then instead of using butter I would use I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter the Light version. Taste wise, I can’t tell the different from real butter but it has a fraction of the saturated fat that butter has and is way better for you.
If you want to be really healthy then use Canola oil instead of butter because this will be unsaturated fat which is way better for you. And keep in mind the less you use the better.
Recipe:
1) Heat a skillet over medium heat with very little canola oil or very little I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.
2) Sprinkle a little Natures Seasoning to taste (and some cayenne pepper if you want a little kick).
3) Drop on your Morel mushroom filets into the pan and flip often.
4) Continue to cook for about 5 minutes or until golden brown.
* One option is to rinse the Morel, dry it off and then dip it into some flour before sauteing them.
2) Deep Fried Morel Mushrooms the Healthy Way
Sauteing Morel mushrooms will be the least healthy because it will contain the most amount of fat…
Recipe:
1) Fill the bottom of your skillet with about half inch of canola oil and heat over medium heat.
2) Take you mushroom filets and dip them into some raw eggs in a bowl (The egg is optional. They should be moist enough for the flour to stick to them without egg).
3) Roll the fillet in a plate with some organic whole wheat flower mixed with some Nature’s Seasoning (and some cayenne pepper if you want a little kick).
4) Take you filets and drop them into the oil turning them often.
5) Continue to cook them for about 5 minutes or until golden brown.
3) Morel Mushroom Soup the Healthy Way
This option is by far going to be the most healthy option of all 3 since it does not involve any oil or butter…
Recipe:
1) Put 6 chicken drum sticks into a big pot of boiling water (Chicken with the bone makes the soup taste delicious).
2) Smash some 4 cloves of garlic and add to the water.
3) Add half a tbsp of ginger powder.
4) Boil the chicken for about 30 minutes until fully cooked.
5) Add 1 cup of cilantro.
6) Add 2 cups of chopped up cabbage.
7) Add 1 cup of fresh celery leaf.
8) Add around 15 Morel mushroom filets and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes.
Then once you put your Morel soup into a bowl sprinkle some fresh pepper on it and enjoy!
The good thing about boiling the mushroom too is it will release the beta D-glucans from the cell wall because you are essentially doing a hot water extraction. That makes this the healthiest choice of all!
One important thing to note about Morels is they need to be cooked before eating them. They contain a toxin called thermolabile that is destroyed during the cooking process.
How To Store Morel Mushrooms
The highly anticipated Morel season kicks off every year in March and ends in June. That gives all the Morel mushroom hunters 4 months to enjoy Morel mushrooms but what about the other 8 months of the year?
You will be forced to pick more then you can eat but you will need a way to store the others so you can enjoy them throughout the year. Therefore, we have made an entire other article on the 3 ways to store Morels to keep them fresh for up to 12 months here:
How to Dry Morel Mushrooms
Another option to store your Morel mushrooms would be to dry them out. Some people really like this method.
The biggest thing with this method is you will need to resaturate your Morel mushrooms. Just soak them in water for 15 to 20 minutes before you want to eat them. Once they are resaturated they will taste and look like a freshly picked Morel.
We wrote a whole other article on the 4 different way to dry out Morel mushrooms to make them ‘cracker dry’ here:
Wrapping Up
Morel mushrooms are a delicious choice edible mushrooms that only grow 4 months out of the year.
Most people only cook them with high saturated butter essentially turning a healthy meal into an unhealthy one. Now you have the knowledge to make you Morel mushrooms taste amazing while still being healthy at the same time.
To learn more about the little know health benefits of the Morel mushrooms, check out our other article here:
Thanks for reading and if you have any other Morel mushroom recipe ideas, please share them in the comments below!
I am brand new to this whole mushroom growing thing, I ordered a morel growing kit so I will see if it works.
Those recipes look good and I will try them if the morels come up!
Thanks!
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