Looks Can Be Deceiving

Happy September! Like many of you, I still cannot believe how fast the time has been going lately. Hope you are all well and happy:)

Today I wanted to share a few pictures of my delicious meals from this week:

Caprese Salad with 'Fresh Mozzarella Cheese'

Greek Salad with 'Feta'

BLT on 'Fluffy White Bread'


And yes, they are all raw and vegan! Allow me to introduce you to a 'secret ingredient' in all of these yummy meals.

A few years ago, I walked out in my backyard to pick up a softball that the kids left out. Don't worry, the secret ingredient isn't a softball:)

As I got a bit closer to the ball, I noticed it was not a ball at all, but a mushroom! Well it was sort of both...it's called a Puffball mushroom:)

The one mushroom started to multiply over the years, and now there are about a dozen in the yard.

This year, I finally got brave enough to eat one. After some online research I realized they were a great first wild mushroom for beginners to forage. Yay!...and right in my own backyard.

The texture totally surprised me. It was quite light and fluffy, with a creaminess very much like fresh buffalo mozzarella! It was solid white, and very mild in taste.

With a quick marinade of olive oil, and a sprinkle of pink salt, it made the perfect raw vegan mozzarella cheese! Of course to complete the look for my caprese salad, I cut it into thin rounds with a small circle cutter. And when cut into cubes, the mozzarella became the feta in my Greek salad:) It was quite convincing as soft fresh cheese, especially in the caprese salad of ripe plum tomato, fresh basil, and balsamic drizzle.

The shape and color of the sliced mushroom reminded me of white bread, so it became the bread in a BLT:)

It did not have the same taste as white bread of course, but it did make a tasty mushroom BLT sandwich anyway...haha! Naturally the bacon was raw vegan eggplant bacon.


I was also happy to discover it makes a great substitute for tofu! I tried out some in Averie's yummy mango ginger maple tofu recipe. It was actually quite good raw:

But really awesome when baked...Thanks so much, Averie!


Here is a little more about the puffball mushroom:

I read that a good size for eating is about the same as your fist.


They can get quite a bit larger, but become inedible at a certain point.

Please check out the links below to find out more about this amazing mushroom:

Purple-spored puffball

Mushroom Expert.com

Finding puffball mushrooms

Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada (book preview)

Wild man Steve Brill

American Mushrooms.com This link has a warning first to alert you to read the information carefully on the site, just for your safety when foraging for wild edibles.

Check out a couple of fun guys with these fungi:)

I hope some of you might be able to find this mushroom in your neck of the woods, or maybe in your own backyard, too. It is a short growing season for them, so enjoy it while it lasts!

Have any of you ever tried a puffball mushroom?

King Oyster Mushroom "Calamari"

I have been intrigued by Sarma's recipe for King Oyster Mushroom "Calamari" since I first saw it on page 155 of Living Raw Food.

Have I mentioned that this book is one of my favorite raw recipe books...ever?

Since I may never get to experience dining at Sarma's famous restaurant, Pure Food and Wine, this is the next best thing! Thank you Sarma, for putting your recipes in this lovely book for us:)

The hardest part about this recipe may be finding the king oyster mushroom. If you have an Asian market in your neighborhood, this might be the place to go. Around here, it is the only place I have seen them. If you don't know what they look like, here is a picture of mine.

I almost forgot they were in the fridge, and the cap of one got a bit frozen, but you don't use the cap for this recipe. And yes, they do sorta remind me of...

a peeled eggplant ;) As a matter of fact, Heathy used eggplant when she made this:)

This is what I consider a fun recipe. I get to play with things like cookie cutters. It is easy to make, and is really pretty quick. It is unique, and it tastes awesome! As usual, I scaled the recipe way down since it is just for moi:)

The first thing to do is slice the mushroom stems, and cut them into rings. I have a set of circle cutters of all different sizes that made the job very easy. If you don't have a circle cutter, the tops of small and large spice jars might work, and they are exactly the size of the two cutters I used. My blogging friend, Bitt, used an apple corer:)

I was able to get two or three rings from each slice.

There was a smaller cutter, but I thought it would be nice to make some "scallops" with the solid middle of each slice.

Sarma mentioned in the book that they make scallops at the restaurant. I just marinated mine in lemon, oil, dulse flakes, and some spices. They were delish!

The calamari is marinated for about a half hour, then coated with seasoned flax seed crumbs. After several hours in the dehydrator, they were perfect!

To accompany the calamari, there are two yummy condiments. A tartar sauce, and a cocktail sauce. I made both in a smaller batch (to my own tastes) and they are incredible! I could not decide which one I liked better, so I enjoyed a little of both and a squeeze of lemon on each tender calamari ring:)

A BIG HUGE THANKS to Sarma for sharing this delicious recipe!

Again, a word to my blogging friends...

Google reader is still cranky :(

I am having some issues commenting on almost everyone's blog this week! I can not even leave a comment on my own blog...lol! If you have blog comments powered by "disqus", it will not load for me at all. The problems are most likely on my end, and I hope to resolve them soon.

In the meantime, I am loving all your posts, and really wish I could comment...maybe someone is trying to keep me quiet??..LOL!