Medicinal Mushroom Soup Stock – featuring Burdock

February 23, 2022

Mushrooms are a fabulous way to support our immune, upper respiratory, and cardiovascular systems. One of the most rewarding ways to work with mushrooms is through food, especially in decoctions, reductions, or soup stocks (like this one!).

It’s important to cook mushrooms to help break down their cell walls to access the medicinal polysaccharides. Making soup stock is a great way to utilize the benefits of the herbs and the mushrooms while knowing you’re offering your body incredible nourishment.

When making this soup stock, we like to add whatever veggies we have in the house that day, or even bones (for the non-vegetarians). 

We also like to add lots of other immune-supporting herbs – like Burdock! Burdock root may be soothing for the GI and digestive tracts – it may help improve digestion and assist with the absorption of nutrients. Burdock root can also potentially be helpful for skin conditions by helping to reduce inflammation and clear toxins when taken internally. For more information about Burdock and its many benefits, check out our Burdock Plant of the Month box.

Medicinal Mushroom Soup Stock

Find details about this recipe and tons of other herbal recipes in Kathi Langelier’s book “Herbal Revolution: 65+ Recipes for Teas, Elixirs, Tinctures, Syrups, Foods + Body Products that Heal.”

What You’ll Need

• Large pot
• Strainer
• 3 (1-pint [480 ml]) or 2 (1-qt [1 L]) sterile jars, for storage
• Ice cube trays

Stock Ingredients

• ⅓ - ½ cup (12-18 g) dried reishi (pieces or slices)
• ⅓ - ½ cup (12-18 g) dried maitake
• 2 tbsp (9 g) dried astragalus root
• 2 tbsp (22 g) dried burdock root
• 1 whole garlic bulb, cloves peeled and smashed
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 2 celery ribs with leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 cup (66 g) kale or kale ribs, roughly chopped
• 3 qt (3 L) water

Optional Additions

• 2 tbsp (15 g) codonopsis root
• 2-4 tbsp (5-10 g) dried nettle
• ¼ cup (6 g) dried milky oat tops
• 2 tbsp (7 g) dried rosemary
• 2 tbsp (7 g) dried thyme
• 2 tbsp (5 g) dried oregano
• 1-2 tbsp (9-18 g) grated fresh ginger
• 2 tsp (6 g) dried turmeric
• 2 carrots

Instructions

Makes 4-6 cups (960 ml - 1.4 L)

Place everything in the pot and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat and cook at a nice steady simmer for at least 4 hours and up to 6 hours. You will most likely need to add more water to the pot as the water reduces, but ultimately you are looking to yield about 6 cups (1.4 L) of stock after 4 hours of simmering.

When the stock is done cooking, strain well and store in labeled jars. You can then use the stock as a base for any recipe calling for broth or stock. The fresh stock will keep for 5 days in the fridge, and up to 12 months in the freezer.

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