Schools
New School Year, New Menus: Mushroom Edition
Part 2: Menu Mushrooms for School and Childcare Settings
After procuring mushrooms in your schools using our Sourcing Catalog, let’s get those mushrooms on the serving lines. Local mushrooms are a cost effective, nutritious, versatile on trend ingredient in menus, from grab and go kiosk to curbside and as an ingredient in many healthy bowls.
How can mushrooms enhance my menu?
In addition to being nutritional powerhouses, mushrooms add eye appeal, flavor, and texture to your dishes. They’re also great for vegan and vegetarian recipes because they can provide students with a hearty, meat-like texture. By using mushrooms to add more flavor in your recipes, menus are packed with a deep flavor in a fraction of the time, without extra salt or fat, and nutrition, like Vitamin D.
Most often school and childcare settings will use white mushrooms because the flavor is not as intense, which can make it appealing for younger customers, some of whom may be trying mushrooms for the first time!
How much do I need to purchase?
When determining how much to purchase and prepare, utilize our recipes and the Food Buying Guide. One pound of fresh mushrooms yields about 4 and ⅔ cups of sliced, ready to eat mushrooms.
How can mushrooms be served?
Fresh
An easy way to feature fresh mushrooms is to add them as a vegetable side on grab and go menus, fresh topping on salad bars, or in any vegetable stir fry, bowl, and soups.
Basically any dish that calls for fresh vegetables, is also a great pick for fresh mushrooms!
Marinated
Another really great way to offer flavorful, fresh mushrooms is to serve them in marinated salads. Marinated salads are a great way to add variety to your vegetable offerings, and they can be prepared in advance and pre-portioned, making service a snap.
Roasted
Roasting mushrooms adds another layer of flavor. Add a rainbow of other vegetables with roasted mushrooms for more flavors. To save costs, roast mushrooms and use them as burger toppings, in soups and stews, on sandwiches, pizza, or dishes like pot roast. Roasted mushrooms can be frozen for later use in sauces, gravies, and other dishes.
Blended
Blended recipes are another great way to utilize leftovers of fresh mushrooms (and repurpose roasted mushrooms!). The key to getting this right is chopping the mushrooms very finely before blending them with the beef. Use a food processor for this, or you can order a pre-chopped product from your produce distributor, if they offer it. The blending technique can be used for meatball, taco, Sloppy Joe, and meatloaf recipes.
Want to train your staff on these culinary techniques? Use our Layers of Flavors Culinary Training.
Need recipe inspiration? Try our favorite recipes below!
| Breakfast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mushroom Cheddar Omelet | Veggie Breakfast Burrito | Build Your Omelet | Veggie Cheddar Quiche | Wafflet with Mushrooms |
Let’s make mushrooms shine on the serving line!
Showcasing quality ingredients like mushrooms will make your menus stand out.
Use our Marketing Tools, like Food Packaging Labels or Product Identifiers, to highlight mushrooms on your menus.
Everyone likes a good story – use our Farm to School resources to engage students about local mushroom farmers, sustainability, and much more!
Have a student favorite recipe you want highlighted? Email us at [email protected] and we’ll feature you on Facebook.
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