How To Make Mushroom Powder And Reap The Health Benefits

What if someone told you adding umami to your home-cooked dishes, from a fluffy egg scramble for breakfast to a late-night chocolate treat, is not only really simple but also added with loads of health benefits? You might be surprised to hear that the critical component has flavors that range from subtle and soft to pronounced and intense.

But what if you want to ditch store-bought powders and take matters into your own hands? So, before you start searching “powdered mushroom how to make,” wait there. This is what you’ve been looking for.

We’ll tell you how to make mushroom powder at the convenience of your home using the best types of mushrooms. Let’s begin!

Best Types Of Mushrooms For Powder

While fresh mushrooms still have the best texture and flavor, dehydrated mushrooms are a great meal to keep on hand in any kitchen. In addition, both you can use both culinary and medical mushrooms to make mushroom powder.

These are the top medicinal mushrooms you'll find in powders and extracts.

• Reishi.
• Lion's Mane.
• Chaga.
• Cordyceps.
• Maitake.
• Turkey Tail.
• Shiitake.

How To Make Dried Mushroom Powder

Making your own mushroom powder at home is relatively easy. However, there are two ways of making it, one is by creating an extract powder, and the other is a basic mushroom powder. Let’s look at each of these below.

How to make mushroom extract powder?

Despite being more complicated, this method provides many advantages. Making an extract first will help this method extract more of the fungi's therapeutic properties. We must dry the extract after it is obtained before processing it.

If you're using fresh mushrooms, wash or brush the fruiting bodies as needed. Then, cut the mushrooms into little pieces and put them in a sizable pot with roughly ten times as much water as the mushrooms. Simmer for 2 to 3 hours.

Allow to cool completely. Pour everything into a blender, along with the water and fruit bodies, and blend until creamy.

Dry the mixture by either pouring the mixture onto fruit leather trays in a dehydrator and drying at 95°F or pouring the mixture onto lightly oiled baking trays in an oven and baking at the lowest temperature with the door slightly ajar.

The dry mixture should be broken into pieces and ground into a fine powder in a spice grinder or food processor.

How to make basic mushroom powder?

Now that we’ve gotten the complex method out of the way, here’s a no-fuss one.

1. Dehydrate your mushrooms properly.

Your fungi must first be dried before you can make them into nutritious powder. Although many well-known grocers sell pre-dehydrated mushrooms, many prefer to dry their own. It's the ideal way to use any extra mushrooms in your refrigerator, and buying in bulk can sometimes result in a discount on fresh mushrooms.

2. Fill a food processor or blender with your dried mushrooms.

Once your mushrooms have dried completely, clean your food processor of dust. If you don't have a processor, use a blender to process the dehydrated fungus until they are a fine powder.

To break up the large pieces, we advise pulsing on and off for 15-20 seconds, followed by roughly a minute of continuous pulsing. To ensure that all chunks of the mushrooms are thoroughly ground in a blender, you might need to pulse more frequently or spread the mushrooms out with a wide spoon in between pulses.

We advise waiting a few minutes before opening the cover after your mushrooms have been blended because doing so could result in a cloud of dust forming within your processor chamber.

3. Sift the pieces.

Even after thoroughly blending, you may still have a few small bits in your mixture. We advise using a fine mesh strainer.

Pour the mixture into the mesh of your stainer, placing a big basin underneath. This way, you can save tough chucks for a second blending session.

*Please note that using a regular strainer will not work because the holes will allow you to lose valuable mushroom powder. Instead, choose a material with a fine weave.

4. Re-add any clumps to your blender or food processor.

Any loose solid parts should be ground again until they are a fine powder. After that, add them to the large bowl and the other powder.

Ta-da! The homemade mushroom powder is ready.

5. Choose the appropriate container for storage.

The best way to keep your mushroom powder fresh for longer is to store it carefully. Although you can store your mushrooms in a plastic zipped bag or a plastic locking container, choosing an airtight glass jar will give them the longest possible shelf life.

Keep your jar in a cupboard and out of direct heat and light. Dried mushrooms will taste the freshest when used within a month of blending. If properly stored, dehydrated mushrooms can last far longer than fresh mushrooms.

6. Use your powdered mushrooms.

Use the generous serving of mushroom powder you now have to your benefit!

How To Use Mushroom Powder?

Now that you know how to make your own mushroom powder right at home, we’ll tell you ways to get a nutritious kick anywhere you want. Mushroom powders blend excellently into:

• Soup
• Smoothies or shakes
• Sauces
• Yogurt
• Broth
• Breakfast cereal
• Gravy

You can also pick from an array of mushroom powder recipes online. For example, you can make a dry rub for poultry, meat, or fish. Alternatively, combine compound butter with chopped herbs, coarse salt, and mushroom powder. You can also use a teaspoon of mushroom powder as a dry ingredient for brownies or spice cookies.

Mushroom Powder Benefits

Certain mushroom varieties can only be harvested at specific times of the year, but you can dehydrate them and use them in your favorite dishes all year round. Yet not all meals work well with dehydrated mushrooms.

The nutrients in mushrooms can be obtained without the unique flavor using mushroom powder. Just blend dried mushrooms into a mushroom powder to add a boost of plant-based protein and nutritional fiber to your meals without the overpowering umami flavor of fresh fungi.

Consuming mushroom powder made from medicinal mushrooms has just about endless benefits. Functional mushrooms are regarded as superfoods for a reason, with benefits ranging from enhanced cognition to increased immunity. An overview of some of our favorite benefits is given below.

Reishi is excellent for boosting the immune system(1) because it has some of the highest beta-glucan concentrations. Reishi has also been demonstrated to support restful sleep.

Lion's mane benefits neurogenesis, memory support(2), and maybe mood enhancement.

FAQs About How To Make Mushroom Powder

References

1. Ganoderma lucidum (Lingzhi or Reishi): A Medicinal Mushroom, (1)https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22593926/
2. Dietary Supplementation of Lion's Mane Medicinal Mushroom, Hericium erinaceus (Agaricomycetes), and Spatial Memory in Wild-Type Mice, (2)https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29953363/