I’ve been a dietitian for over 20 years and have additional qualifications in paediatrics. In my career I have worked at several large international schools to help develop menu’s that are not only tasty for the students to eat, but are also nutritious – to sustain their activity levels throughout the day, and to support their extra growth and development needs.

I am also a mother of 3, and I know too well that putting healthier, nutrient rich meals into their tummies can sometimes feel like an uphill battle.

It is important to remember that children are not mini adults when it comes to nutrition, and there are valid reasons why your child might refuse food. Parents know that serving foods with a variety of fruits and veggies is great for their nutritional needs, but this also means the child is eating a wide range of foods textures, tastes and meal presentations. Many younger children find eating certian foods difficult because of how it looks or tastes, and while they are often labelled as difficult or fussy eaters, food refusal is often more of an aversion to an initial experience – such as eating a cold and hard to chew piece of broccoli. If they don’t like a food the first time, chances are they will be reluctant to try it again.

If you want to save your sanity and increase their nutrient intake, it can be better to offer healthier or tweaked versions of their favourite eat meals which are easier to eat, such as spaghetti bolognaise, cottage pie or a mini burger.

That’s why I like to recommend a blend of mushrooms and mince.

By simply dicing whole fresh mushrooms and adding them to recipes your child already knows and loves to eat, you will transform their favourite dinners into a super nutrition charged meal, that is lower in (the unhealthier types of) fat and salt– and your kids will actually eat it, because it looks and tastes like it usually does.

This ‘stealth health’ approach to feeding children isn’t a new concept, as parents have been hiding veggies in food for many years, but there are some other specific reasons why mushrooms with mince makes the perfect blend.

Why a blend of mushrooms + mince works better than other veggies:

1. Mushrooms boost the meaty flavour:

   Children have twice as many taste buds as adults, which means certain foods can taste different to them than it does to us. Broccoli for example, contains a glucosinolate compound that can make it taste bitter, which means for some kids, it doesn’t matter how you mix it or blend it in with meals, they will detect that bitter broccoli at fifty paces. Mushrooms however have a natural umami flavour (which is the Japanese word for “deliciousness”). Umami is the fifth taste, after salty, sweet, sour, and bitter – and is detected by the middle of our tongue. Foods like soy sauce, parmesan cheese and of course meat also have this deep, rich, and earthy umami flavour. This explains why, when mushrooms and meat are mixed together in a 50:50 ratio, you can’t taste the mushrooms; their double umami flavour just makes meals taste ‘meatier.’ No other vegetable has this meaty umami flavour, which is why a mushroom and mince blend in meals is a much more palatable flavour for young kids.

2. You can’t see mushrooms when they are blended with mince:

   Most parents of a ‘fussy eater’ would tell you, that if they dished up a food their child doesn’t know, or if they can see a vegetable in the meal – they won’t eat it. It is hard to hide green, yellow, or red bits in any food. Whereas mushrooms, if finely diced (or shredded with a cheese grater or pulsed in a blender) form little white bits which can be easily stained by the sauce in a bolognese, giving the mushrooms a great camouflage. This is why mushrooms are far less likely to be spotted in their spaghetti sauce than green broccoli.

   My top tip is to use a few firm, white button mushrooms for the blend, rather than a large flat portobello. A portobello mushroom with its dark cap and gills can be spotted in meals, while finely diced little white mushroom bits will get stained by the sauce and are far less likely to be detected by your little one’s eagle eye for veggies!

3. Mushrooms have a similar mouthfeel to mince:
   

   One of the biggest objections children have to new foods is mouthfeel. If it feels slippery and strange, they are less likely to eat it. White button mushrooms, when finely diced, resemble the mouth feel of mince. They aren’t crunchy or chewy and soften quickly in the cooking process, so you don’t need to stew for hours or blend meals into soups for your kids to eat it.
   
   My top tip to avoid mushroom detection is to use button or cup mushrooms, rather than their more mature versions of big flat BBQ mushrooms or portobellos. Smaller white button mushrooms have less water and a harder texture, which resembles meat. So if you dice them up nice and fine before you add them to minced dishes, they won’t even know they are there.

So, give it a go! Start with blending mushrooms and mince in your next family spaghetti Bolognese – it’s a great way to boost the nutritional value of our family meal, while reducing the amount of meat they eat – in a stealth health way. They are sure to lick their plates clean.

The Blend cooking technique works in ANY minced meat recipe, so try it with Tuesday taco night, classic rissoles, and burgers on the BBQ too.

It’s no wonder Aussie Mums are becoming blenditarians.

 

As a Clinical and Sports Dietitian, and Director of CANutrition, a specialist nutrition practice that provides dietetic advice to support cancer patients, my 20-year career has been dedicated to helping people progress their health, wellness and performance needs, using plant-based dietary approaches.

Plant-based diets, including the Mediterranean, DASH and MIND diets, have been widely researched as helping to reduce risks of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. They are also associated with healthier body weights, as well as improved gut, brain and longer-term cognitive function.

One confusing aspect of plant-based eating that I often need to clarify, is that these ‘plant-forward’ diets aren’t exclusively tofu and beans, and it is still okay to include small serves of red and other meats. This is an enormous relief to many patients whose spaghetti Bolognese, burger and meatloaf recipes are hard-wired into them. Lean red meat in my patient’s diets also adds in good quality proteins, a more absorbable iron and other essential minerals. This is important when they are recovering from cancer treatment, training hard or trying to reduce fat, not muscle weight.

The Australian Heart Foundation and Cancer Council Australia also recommend that a wholefood type plant-based diet can include up to 350-400g of red meat a week. The current Australian Dietary Guidelines (2013) recommend small palm-sized portions (90-120g), included up to 2-3 times a week.

One of the easiest ways to adpot a plant-based approach to eating, is to use a mushroom blend when cooking minced meat meals. Substituting a portion of mince (beef, lamb, pork or chicken) in recipes, with an equivalent serve of mushrooms, will not only reduce the amount of meat in the meal, it will further enhance the taste, health and budget benefits too.

Here are 5 reasons why I recommend a mushroom + mince blend:

1. The Blend cooking method is easy to adopt.
   

   When switching to a plant-based diet, it can be confusing not knowing what you can/can’t eat or learning new recipes to cook. The blend cooking method is a straight switch of ingredients, switching out some mince for mushrooms, so it is easy to adopt as it doesn’t require you to come up with a whole new repertoire of recipes. Using smaller serves of red meat and boosting the portion sizes with mushrooms, will also help your minced meals taste better, cost less to make, and be boosted with extra health benefits.

2. Healthier – with less fat and more nutrients.
   

   Mushrooms have almost no kilojoules or calories compared to red meat, so substituting some mince for mushrooms significantly lowers the overall food kilojoules or calories that you are dishing up. Comparatively, mushrooms have 88% less calories than the same portion of lean red minced meat, which is good for the waistline.

   • 100g of lean red mince* 710 kJ (169 calories)
   • 100g of minced mushrooms 86 KJ    (20 calories)

   *Analysis 100g lean red mince Foodworks 10

   In addition, to helping to reduce red meat intake and lower the fat content of your meals, a blend of mushrooms supercharges the nutritional value. Mushrooms have been found to be rich in an exciting type of fibres – beta-glucans. Beta-glucans have been shown to help reduce cholesterol levels This potential of beta-glucans in mushrooms is being investigated by CSIRO and it is likely that a blended meal of meat and mushrooms could be the next heart foundation favourite food
   Mushrooms are also a very good source of vitamin D. Blending in a serve of mushrooms (exposed to sunlight for 15 minutes) into your spaghetti bolognaise is enough to meet your daily vitamin D requirements.

3. Blending mushrooms with mince ENHANCES the meaty flavour, while reducing the amount of salt needed.
   

   There are not too many whole foods or ingredients that can be used to fill the shoes of the meaty type tastes in dishes like bolognaise, meat loaf, burgers and alike. Mushrooms however have an umami flavour, which results in their ability to mimic the taste of meat naturally.This was put to the test by the US Mushroom Council in a consumer acceptance study of both adults and children (eating blended beef burgers at school). A study from The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and University of California-Davis showed that a traditional mincemeat recipe (like a favourite burger) prepared with a mushroom and meat blend could enhance the overall flavour – due to double the impact of the umami flavour. This umami flavour was also proven to reduce the amount of salt need in dishes.In both research studies, participants did not notice any significant differences in the taste of their meals. Many participants found that mushrooms enhanced the overall taste of the meals, and that minced meat meals could substitute up to 70% mushrooms, in beef mince dishes like shepherd’s pie or chilli con carne, without changing the ‘meaty’ flavour.Reducing salt in the diet is key dietary recommendation that is aimed at helping improve heart health and lower the risks of high blood pressure and a stroke.

4. Fuller for longer.
   

   Mushrooms are also proven to assist with satiety (feeling full) as they have unique with fibres that help you to feel fuller for longer. Mushrooms are rich in beta-glucans, which is a soluble type of fibre, and these types of fibres absorb water and swell in the gut. This helps to slow down the rate of digestion and how fast your food travels down through the digestive tract. Think about how long a whole food burger made with mushrooms and served with a salad will travel, compared to a fast-food version served with a soft drink. Incorporating mushrooms into your minced dishes means you will feel satisfied for longer, even though you have eaten less.

5. More cost-effective – extends portions and saves you money.

   This is common sense. Typically, mushrooms cost less per kilo than lean red mince, which means you will save money. Bulking up your meals with blended mushrooms saves money too, as it’s easy to extend portion sizes. We like the idea of extending the meal so that you have one serve for dinner and another for the freezer or lunch tomorrow.

Since I have started working with the Australian Mushroom Growers Association, my husband tells everyone that he is sure that the sale of mushrooms has grown exponentially. I have always loved mushrooms, but I am still discovering lots of new and exciting health and tasty ways to use them. Using a blend of mushroom is one of the easiest cooking methods to adopt, plus it is a do-able way to be able to eat a plant-rich diet, as well smaller palm sized portions of meat. Mushrooms can also help to boost the taste, nutrients and the health benefits that can still be enjoyed from your family favourite meals.

In a nation where ‘meat and three veg’ has traditionally ruled the dinner table for generations, and a family BBQ or dinner at the local pub typically serves up a piece of steak that’s so big it takes up half the dinner plate – it’s good to see that millions of Australians are starting to shift towards a more plant-focused, flexitarian diet.

Recent research conducted by Food Frontier has revealed that 1 in 3 Australians are consciously trying to limit the amount of red meat they eat. It’s no surprise that 57% of vegans and 61% of vegetarians are millennials, but perhaps a more interesting statistic is that 43% of Australian meat-reducers are baby-boomers.

When asked about their personal motivation for the shift towards plant-based eating, HEALTH was the number one reason Australians choose to eat less meat, closely followed by a four-way tie: the environment, animal welfare, cost and the availability and variety of plant-based options now available.

It seems Australians are finally getting the message that eating less meat and more veggies is better for our overall health and helps to combat chronic disease.

Why Aussies are eating less red meat for their health

We now know that that eating too much red meat is linked to health risks including heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.

Recommendations from health authorities including The Australian Heart Foundation and the Cancer Council Australia state that we should reduce our weekly intakes to 350g, served up in 90-120g portions spread out across the week. This includes steak, lamb, sausages, and our beloved Sunday roast.

But sticking to just 350g of red meat a week is a daunting thought for many of us, especially when the average T-bone at the local pub is 400g – which we devour in one meal.

As Aussies, we are so used to eating red meat at most meals, particularly at dinner time. So how on earth can we achieve eating just 350g of red meat a week, spread over 3-4 meal occasions? A simple answer lies with a blend of mushrooms + mince.

The Blend is an easy way to reduce meat.

Many of us think it needs to be an all-or-nothing choice of living a life of either beef or beans. It seems our recipe repertoire is hard-wired into us, handed down over the generations, no wonder many of us feel that to change our ‘red meat habits’, we need to learn new recipes and a whole new way of cooking. Changing habits of any kind is a difficult process, which is why a change in diet is often difficult for some to adopt long-term.

The good news is, with the help of the mighty mushroom and ‘The Blend’, we don’t need to change our diet or learning new recipes.

As it turns out, as a multicultural society, Australians love minced meat meals. Dishes such as spaghetti bolognaise, chilli con carne, tacos, meat balls and burgers are arguably some of the most popular dishes served up in most Australian households. In fact as a nation around 30% or so of the red meat dishes we eat, are made with mince.

There is an easy opportunity for us to reach our reduced red meat goals, by re-thinking how we cook and prepare our favourite minced meat dishes – by simply substituting some minced meat for finely diced mushrooms in our nation’s most popular dishes.

The Blend is simple.

The most successful trends are easy to understand, and easy to adopt. Which is why the blend is on trend for those wanting to reduce their meat intake or serve their family more nutritious meals – that they will actually eat!

The blend of mushrooms and mince is a straight swap of ingredients. If you are cooking a spaghetti Bolognese and the recipe calls for 500g of mince – use the 50/50 method and substitute half the mince for mushrooms. Without any other changes to the recipe, you have instantly reduced the amount of meat you serve your family, and you have boosted the nutritional value – thanks to mushrooms.

The straight switch for equal parts of mince to mushrooms not only results in a more plant-focused dish – but thanks to the umami flavour of the mushrooms, the dish retains a meaty flavour.

The blend is a simple cooking method which is an easy habit to adopt, its healthier and it tastes great.

It’s no wonder more Australians are taking up the trend to blend mushrooms with mince.