To reduce the amount of meat in burgers and other ground meat recipes, blend in chopped mushrooms as a substitute for up to 70 percent of the meat. This greatly reduces the calories and saturated fat in meat-based recipes and is an easy way to get more vegetables and nutrients, such as potassium and vitamin D.
In addition, mushrooms, just like meat, provide a lot of savory flavor (called umami), and they are far more environmentally friendly to cultivate than meat. You can use different types of mushrooms.
The Mushroom Council is promoting this idea as “The Blend” and recommends substituting 25 percent of the meat in burgers, meatballs, and meatloaf with mushrooms (a 25/75 mushroom-meat blend); substituting 50 percent of the meat with mushrooms in sloppy joes, tacos, and burritos (50/50 blend); and substituting 70 percent of the meat with mushrooms in chilis (70/30 blend).
For recipe ideas on how to incorporate mushrooms into these and other meat dishes, go to the Mushroom Council’s website.
