Adaptogenic Mushrooms Like Chaga are Easier to Get Into Your Diet Today Than Ever Before

The Mushroom of Immortality, chaga, has certainly earned its spot as a world-renowned functional mushroom. Beyond just the average mushrooms you cook with, it creates functional benefits that you can reap the benefits of in every day you work it into your diet.

Functional mushrooms (or adaptogenic mushrooms) in general have become outstanding daily supplements you’ve just gotta try. Ranging in vitamin, protein, and antioxidant-powered support, these mushrooms might offer functional properties in:

• Sleep support

• Better energy

• Mood regulation

• Easier anxiety and stress relief

• Quicker productivity days

Now, these health benefits don’t all come from one fungus. It takes a complete functional mushroom routine that stays consistent in order to start seeing such a wide variety of benefits. These species might include:

• Lion’s mane

• Cordyceps

• Reishi

• Turkey tail

While each has their own place in your meal planning and benefits, chaga is a great place to start.

As one of the most versatile, easily-preparable medicinal mushrooms available today, chaga can be tossed into dessert recipes, teas, coffees, and even full meals. They also are known as “black gold,” or the “gift of God,” which speaks volumes on how they’ve been recognized in cultures all over the world for the past several thousand years before they moved into western cultures.

Today, we’ll take a deep dive with Team Troomy on how to work chaga into your meal prepping, popular recipes to try, and more.

What Are Chaga Mushrooms?

Chaga mushrooms (or inonotus obliquus) are industry-leading functional mushrooms for all kinds of functional uses. Found primarily in colder climates throughout the northern hemisphere, Russia, Siberia, Canada, and other similar environments house these nutrient-rich fungi for centuries. Starting in folk medicine and eastern cultural usage, now chaga’s become a much more widely recognized mushroom for support that even the most basic health and wellness routine can take full advantage of.

In its parasitic relationship with the tree hosting it, chaga’s mycelium consumes the tree (usually a birch tree) from the inside over time, which actually can make it an extremely powerful, nutrient-rich supplement.

But what sets them apart from other functional mushrooms? Why should you try chaga today?

 

Why Eat Chaga Mushrooms?

If the vitamin, protein, and antioxidant support from polysaccharides and betulinic acid isn’t enough, the functionally-boosting properties should be. Adaptogenic mushrooms generally offer some kind of leading health benefit that they can center their benefits around. For chaga, that's a variety of areas in body function.

Better Sleep

Chaga's exceptional when it comes to boosting sleep effectiveness. Restful, body-balanced sleep comes easily when you offer your body the nutrients it needs to feel at peace.

Adaptogenic properties in chaga naturally offer adaptation routes for the mind to destress, and the body to find a sense of calm. As you expand your repertoire of adaptogenic mushrooms in your diet, reishi might be another mushroom to look to pursue as well.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants like polyphenols are perfect for finding free radicals from body cells and reducing the risk of damage to cells caused by oxidation or oxidative stress. These are an essential element to any good health and wellness routine, and can be an absolute game-changer when you start using chaga mushrooms to support boosting your antioxidant effectiveness.

Immune System Support

Your immune system controls so much of what you can or can’t do in a given day. If you don’t feel at your best, chances are flu season is going to give you a real tough time without support.

Luckily, chaga offers immune support that can really bolster your immune defense throughout the year. This starts with beta-glucans as top-performing carbohydrates, which can balance the production of cytokines, stimulate blood cells, and even increase communication of the immune system for faster responses.

Inflammation Reduction

Reducing inflammation is something we could all use a bit of. Ailments of all shapes and sizes can drastically impact your inflammation, which roots in far more illnesses than you might think.

Beyond these key areas, chaga mushrooms still offers plenty of other subtle, diet-based benefits that make them well-worth trying in your routine. It just comes down to finding a recipe you might like to try.

Chaga Tea Recipes

Chaga tea is one of the most popular ways to try functional mushrooms, since you can get both hot and cold blends, and also customize it around your needs. Here are a couple of simple, base recipes to work off of and find your own blend of healthy additives that make adding chaga to your diet fun.

Recipe 1: Simple Chaga Mushroom Tea

Chaga tea is an excellent route to go for mushroom support. It’s light, hot, and delicious when you blend it up just right. Even as just a raw mushroom, you can grab chaga and mix it into this base tea blend simply, even in non-powder or extract form.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of chaga chunks (or powder equivalent)

• 1 teaspoon of honey (optional)

• 1 splash of lemon juice

• 2 cups of hot water

Instructions:

1. Add chaga chunks and water to a pot.

2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 20 minutes.

3. Strain, mix in additives and serve.

 

Recipe 2: Chaga and Cinnamon Tea

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of chaga chunks

• 2 cups of water

• Sweetener of choice (maple syrup, honey, for example)

• 1 cinnamon stick

Instructions:

1. Add chaga chunks, water, and cinnamon stick to a pot.

2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 20 minutes.

3. Strain and serve.

Chaga Smoothie Recipes

Chaga smoothies are a great alternative to teas that add a bit more variety in the blend. Fruits, veggies, and proteins you can toss in to get the exact flavor and nutrients you're looking for.

Recipe 1: Chaga Berry Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas

• 1/2 cup of frozen berries

• 1 tablespoon of chaga mushroom powder

• 1 cup of almond milk

• 1 tablespoon of honey

Instructions:

1. Start with any prep work (chopping chaga, cut up banana slices, etc.)

2. Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. 

Recipe 2: Chaga and Coconut Milk Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas

• 1/2 cup of frozen pineapple

• 1 tablespoon of chaga powder

• 2 cups of coconut milk

• shredded coconut (optional)

• 1 tablespoon of honey

Instructions:

1. Take any time you need for cutting up banana slices, thawing pineapple, etc.

2. Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.

Chaga Mushroom Recipes

Cooking might be a tougher place to start with chaga mushrooms and functional power, but it’s well worth the elbow grease if you’re looking to expand your flavor palette while also getting more vitamins. Full recipes can be filling, nutritious, and delicious all at once. Just be mindful of the extra expenses of keeping fresh ingredients on hand for full-family meals using organic, vitamin-rich supplements.

Recipe 1: Chaga Mushroom Soup

Mushroom soup can be a great comfort food. It’s perfect for cold weather, getting strong vitamins, adding a bit of protein, and getting a well-rounded diet started.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of chaga powder

• 1 tablespoon of cardamom

• 2 cups of vegetable broth

• 1 onion, chopped

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced

• 2 cups of chopped mushrooms (your choice of mushroom)

• 1 cup of almond milk

• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. In a pot, sauté the onion and garlic until soft.

2. Add the extra mushrooms and sauté for another 5 minutes.

3. Add the chaga powder and vegetable broth and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

4. Using an immersion blender (or equivalent), blend the soup until smooth.

5. Add almond milk and salt and pepper to taste.

Recipe 2: Chaga Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of chaga powder

• 1 cup of Arborio rice

• 4 cups of vegetable broth

• 1 onion, chopped

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced

• 1 cup of chopped mushrooms

• 1/2 cup of white wine

• 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. In a pot, sauté the onion and garlic until soft.

2. Add the mushrooms and sauté for another 5 minutes.

3. Add the Arborio rice and chaga powder, and stir until the rice is coated.

4. Add the white wine and let it cook until absorbed.

5. Gradually add the vegetable broth, stirring constantly, until the rice is cooked.

6. Add Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper to taste.

Chaga Dessert Recipes

Chaga mushroom can also be used in making desserts, providing a unique earthy flavor with strong health benefits rather than a sugary, vitaminless sugar craze.

Hot drinks are a common place most folks start, with hot chocolate, coffee, chai, lattes, or or espressos being fun recipes to mix up. While dairy-free blends might be the way to go, it’s worth a shot to give each a chance if you're looking to work in other health-friendly supplements or ingredients like cacao powder and oats or matcha.

Recipe 1: Chaga Hot Cocoa

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of chaga powder

• 2 cups of almond milk

• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder

• 1/4 cup of honey

• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

• Whipped cream (optional)

Instructions:

1. In a pot, heat the almond milk and chaga powder until steaming.

2. Add cocoa powder, honey, and vanilla extract.

3. Whisk until all ingredients are mixed well.

4. Pour the mixture into a mug and add whipped cream on top (optional).

 

Recipe 2: Chaga Chocolate Bark

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of chaga powder

• 1 cup of dark chocolate chips

• 1/4 cup of chopped nuts (optional)

Instructions:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a pot, heat the dark chocolate chips and chaga powder over low heat, stirring constantly until melted.

3. Pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and spread it out evenly.

4. Sprinkle chopped nuts on top (optional).

5. Let it cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

6. Once cooled, break the chocolate bark into pieces and serve.

Alternative Ways To Get The Health Benefits of Chaga

Now, cooking chaga or blending it up into a tea might not be for everyone. It takes a ton of additional prep work, can require cultivation on your end, and requires a maintained shelf life with fresh ingredients.

Luckily, we put together a host of other routes you can take to give chaga a try. SInce it's so widely available today all over the market online and in organic grocery stores, chances are, there's at least one blend of the mushrooms that you can find as a perfect route to get started in using mushroom-powered wellness today.

Powders

While you can grind up chaga mushrooms into powders already when you have them in raw form, powder blends are widely available as supplements as well.

However, they can be a bit messy. Sometimes you just don't get the pour right, or the flavor can be a bit too earthy for anyone's liking. Make sure that if you do elect to go the powder route, you find a blend you genuinely enjoy, so you can look forward to adding supplements into your day.

Capsules

Capsules are popular for all kinds of brain-function-boosting nootropics, as well as daily vitamins. You can get most mushrooms like chaga in capsule form as well, and these can hyper-consolidate nutrients to make it a much more fast-acting supplement like tinctures.

Still, capsules also might remind you of medicine. The last thing you want is to dread another part of your routine and make adding mushrooms more difficult than it should be in your diet. If capsules are the usual route you go for supplements, than chaga can be a fine addition in the same way. 

At Troomy, though, we recommend giving gummies a try.

Gummies

Mushroom gummies are the perfect middle ground for getting mushrooms into your diet regularly. They’re fast, reliable, and can be entirely as healthy as their organic mushroom extract counterparts.

Take Troomy blends, for example. Troomy’s five mushroom-packed blends of gummies are a simple, powerful route to using mushroom wellness in your diet today. They can be taken on the go, still use organic ingredients, and are entirely caffeine free.

On top of being portable, they’re also efficient. Each one targets a different group of your needs, which allows you to plan your day with each gummy powered by different functional mushrooms like chaga. Luckily, it's easier than ever to find a blend and get started.

Getting Started with Troomy Today!

Overall, chaga’s got a ton of recipes you can try today. It’s a highly popular addition to health and wellness diets through soups, teas, smoothies, and more.

The trick really just comes down to finding enough time for the mushrooms. Keeping fresh mushrooms on hand and being aware of their shelf life can stack up, and it’s never the easiest thing to deal with. At Troomy, we recommend trying chaga mushroom gummies like Daily.

Daily is one of our top-performing mushroom blends that combines chaga with over 10 other functional mushrooms to create one supercharged boost of function. Each gummy has 2000mg of mushrooms total, which is perfect for getting introduced to the mushroom space without overdoing it.

So why wait? Give Daily a try today and start finding your “True Me” with Troomy!