Can the Four Great Famous Dishes' Lion's Mane Mushroom Treat Stomach Problems? Stomach-Nourishing Recipes and Debittering Tips

Lion's Mane Mushroom, also called Hericium erinaceus, gets its name because its shape closely resembles a monkey's head. It is one of the Four Great Famous Dishes and is known as “the monkey head of mountain delicacies, the shark fin of sea flavors.” As an ingredient, Lion's Mane Mushroom makes delicious dishes. At the same time, Lion's Mane Mushroom is also a medicinal material, and the medicine made from this medicinal material is called Hericium tablet. So can Lion's Mane Mushroom treat stomach problems? How do you eat it to nourish the stomach?

Can Lion's Mane Mushroom treat stomach problems?

Lion's Mane Mushroom has a certain curative effect on treating stomach problems and can relieve and prevent this disease. It is recorded on page 207 of Volume 15 of the “Drug Standards of the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China”: “This product is a tablet made from processed Lion's Mane Mushroom. It has the effect of nourishing the stomach and is used for the treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers and chronic gastritis.” In addition, many studies in modern medicine and pharmacology summarize the medicinal effects of Lion's Mane Mushroom polysaccharides as improving immunity, resisting tumors, resisting aging, lowering blood lipids, and various other physiological functions.

In recent years, a kind of Lion's Mane Mushroom biscuit has become very popular! Merchants claim that Lion's Mane Mushroom has been added to these biscuits and that they can nourish the stomach! From a nutritional perspective, Lion's Mane Mushroom has a stomach-nourishing effect. Lion's Mane Mushroom is only helpful as an auxiliary treatment for stomach problems and cannot cure them at the root. As a food therapy formula, it can be eaten after surgery for stomach problems, tumors, and gastric cancer.

“Lion's Mane Mushroom biscuits” are so highly sought after, so is the stomach-nourishing effect as miraculous as advertised?

According to relevant professionals: Lion's Mane Mushroom tonifies the spleen and boosts qi and aids digestion, so it is indeed good for the stomach. Biscuits are mainly made of wheat flour, and “Lion's Mane Mushroom biscuits” will not have the medicinal effects of Lion's Mane Mushroom. The hype exceeds their actual usefulness.

A dietitian at a certain hospital also believes that the claim that Lion's Mane Mushroom biscuits can treat stomach problems is hype. “Not to mention the tiny amount of Lion's Mane Mushroom powder added, just considering that the biscuits go through high-temperature baking, how much of the active ingredient in Lion's Mane Mushroom powder that is beneficial to the stomach can remain? The effect of Lion's Mane Mushroom is not as miraculous as advertised. Do not expect biscuits to cure disease.

As for the situation where many consumers feel their stomachs are a bit more comfortable after eating them, this may be because Lion's Mane Mushroom biscuits are originally soda crackers. The sodium bicarbonate, ammonium bicarbonate, and other ingredients in the ingredient list can neutralize stomach acid and have a soothing effect on symptoms of excessive gastric acid secretion.

How to eat Lion's Mane Mushroom to nourish the stomach

Eating Lion's Mane Mushroom after making it into various soups is the most ideal way to let Lion's Mane Mushroom exert its stomach-nourishing effect. When making soups, you can make Lion's Mane Mushroom soup on its own, or pair Lion's Mane Mushroom with multiple ingredients such as Beiqi, snow fungus, and burdock to make stomach-nourishing soup. In addition, when Lion's Mane Mushroom is stewed in soup with cuttlefish, its stomach-nourishing effect is also quite outstanding.

1. Lion's Mane Mushroom Chicken Soup

Ingredients: 3 Lion's Mane Mushrooms, half a chicken, goji berries, ginger, salt, cooking wine, a few slices of ham.

Method:

1. Soak the Lion's Mane Mushrooms in warm water for six hours, rub them with your hands, and wash them clean.

2. Put the chicken into boiling water to blanch, add two slices of ginger and some wine to remove the fishy smell. After blanching, take it out and rinse it clean.

3. Cut the chicken into pieces and slice the ham. Put the chicken, ham, Lion's Mane Mushrooms, and ginger slices together into an electric purple clay stewing pot, add enough cold water at once, and stew for four hours. Add goji berries during the last half hour, and add salt to taste before drinking.

2. Steamed Egg with Lion's Mane Mushroom

Ingredients: 1 dried Lion's Mane Mushroom, 1 egg, appropriate amounts of salt, cooking oil, etc.

Method:

1. Take one Lion's Mane Mushroom, cut it into small cubes with scissors, put it into clean water, and soak to rehydrate. The next day, the originally dry Lion's Mane Mushroom will have completely softened, and the water used to soak it will also have turned yellow. Put the rehydrated Lion's Mane Mushroom together with the water into the refrigerator to store until use.

2. Each time, scoop one spoonful of Lion's Mane Mushroom cubes into a small bowl, crack in one egg, and stir together evenly.

3. Put it into the microwave and heat on high for 3 minutes.

3. Stir-Fried Pork Stomach Slices with Lion's Mane Mushroom

Ingredients: 30 grams of dried Lion's Mane Mushroom, 260 grams of cooked pork stomach, 80 grams of Chinese chives, appropriate amounts of vegetable oil, sesame oil, refined salt, monosodium glutamate, white sugar, pepper powder, and cooking wine.

Method:

1. Soak the dried Lion's Mane Mushroom in warm water to rehydrate, wash it clean, cut it into slices along the spines, blanch it in a boiling water pot to remove the bitter taste, take it out and drain it; cut the cooked pork stomach into slices.

2. Heat vegetable oil in a wok over high heat, add the cooked pork stomach slices and Lion's Mane Mushroom slices and stir-fry, add cooking wine, refined salt, white sugar, monosodium glutamate, and Chinese chives, drizzle with sesame oil, stir evenly, transfer to a plate, and sprinkle with pepper powder.

4. Astragalus and Lion's Mane Mushroom Chicken Soup

Ingredients: 2 Lion's Mane Mushrooms, 2 slices of astragalus, 1 free-range chicken, 1 scallion, ginger slices, 1 tablespoon of cooking wine, rapeseed greens

Method:

1. Soak the Lion's Mane Mushrooms in rice washing water for 6 hours to rehydrate.

2. Rinse the rehydrated Lion's Mane Mushrooms repeatedly with warm water until clean, and squeeze out the water.

3. Cut the free-range chicken into pieces, cut the scallion into sections, and slice the ginger.

4. Add water to a pot and bring to a boil, add cooking wine, put in the chicken pieces and blanch until they change color, then take them out and rinse off the foam with warm water.

5. Put the Lion's Mane Mushrooms into boiling water and blanch for 1 minute, take them out and wash them clean with warm water and squeeze them dry, then cut them into slices.

6. Add water to a clay pot and heat it, put in the chicken, Lion's Mane Mushrooms, astragalus, scallion sections, and ginger slices, bring to a boil over high heat, then turn to low heat and simmer for 2 hours.

7. First take out the chicken pieces and place them at the bottom of a bowl, then take out the Lion's Mane Mushroom slices and place them on top.

8. Add the rapeseed greens to the soup and cook briefly, then ladle it into a soup bowl and serve.

How to choose Lion's Mane Mushroom

Those with uniform size, bright yellow color, tender texture and thick flesh, complete spines, dryness without insect damage, and no impurities are of good quality.

When choosing Lion's Mane Mushroom: it is white when fresh; after drying it is brown or light brown. Some artificially cultivated Lion's Mane Mushrooms now are mainly identified by complete shape, full fuzz, large size, and golden yellow color.

Rehydrating Lion's Mane Mushroom: Soak it in warm water for several hours; in winter it can be soaked overnight. After rehydrating, trim off the old root, squeeze and wash it repeatedly with your hands, and wash away the yellow water to remove the bitter taste. Before putting it into the pot, you can also scald it once more with boiling water, so the bitter taste can be completely removed.

Who is suitable for Lion's Mane Mushroom

People with low immunity and people with high mental workload; people allergic to fungal foods should use Lion's Mane Mushroom with caution. Both infants and the elderly can eat Lion's Mane Mushroom. 

Patients with cardiovascular disease and gastrointestinal disease should especially eat Lion's Mane Mushroom.