22 Jan The Last Vegan Mushroom Burger You’ll Ever Need, With Fries & Reishi Salt

Serves 4
Prep time: 45 minutes

Mushrooms are one of the most incredible things on this planet in my opinion. If you don’t agree just go watch Fantastic Fungi and have your mind blown. All mushrooms promote neurogenesis – the growth of new neurons in the brain. Some a little and some a lot and the plethora of other goodness they bring to the body is incredible. You can consume mushrooms in all forms now and a really popular way is in tablet form – I take a lion’s mane supplement quite regularly. Another popular way is to put them in powder form into smoothies or hot drinks. I decided to hero the mushroom in a good ol’ burger and chips – because how great to enjoy the benefits of these incredible health foods in foods we love.

INGREDIENTS

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Patty 

• 400g black beans – soaked (4 hours or more), drained, rinsed and dried
• ½ red onion
• 1 large garlic clove
• ½ cup cooked barley
• 2 sprigs rosemary chopped
• ½ cup chopped mushrooms – you can use shitake, button, oyster, chanterelle etc
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp mustard
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 TBS flaxmeal
• Brown mushroom buns
• 8 x large brown mushrooms
• Olive oil

Reishi Salted rosemary straw fries

• 2 x large potatoes
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp reishi powder
• 1 sprig rosemary (+- 2 TBS)
• 2 tsp lemon zest

Method

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1. Preheat the oven to 180C, coat the brown mushrooms in olive oil and bake in the oven until cooked. About 8 minutes.

For The Patties

1. Pop half the barley and all the rest of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until nicely combined. Add the rest of the barley and pulse to mix in.
2. Divide into 4 and form into patties. Lightly fry in a pan until dark and crispy on each side.
3. If you feel like they are too wet you can add in some cake flour or GF flour to firm them up.
4. Serving suggestion: You can place some baby spinach on 4 of the brown mushrooms with slices of tomato, pickles and roast pepper.

For The Fries

1. Heat a pot of oil on the stove.
2. Cut the potatoes into thin batons – just thicker than a matchstick and the full length of the potato.
3. Pat dry on some paper towel and mix with the rosemary sprigs. Place 1 fry in the oil to check if it is hot enough – it should immediately bubble and rise to the top.
4. Fry the chips with the rosemary until golden brown and crispy. 
5. In a little bowl mix the reishi, lemon zest and salt. Sprinkle on the fries