Vegetarian Stuffed Mushrooms will help you fend off holiday calories

The French call them hors d’oeuvres. The Spanish call them tapas. In Italy, they’re antipasti, and in Japan, they’re izakaya. From dim sum in China to mezze in the Middle East, cultures around the world have some version of small dishes that are served with drinks or as a first course to a fine meal. Sometimes they even make up the whole meal.

Sounds delightful, doesn’t it? The only hitch is that those little bites can quickly add up to a surprising number of calories, and that becomes an issue if you’re trying to maintain your weight during the holidays.

This is where our vegetarian stuffed mushrooms (just 45 calories each) come to the rescue. Their rich, savory flavor easily stands in for the taste of meat, and the depth of that flavor reduces the need to add salt.

Mushrooms are the fruit of a fungus called mycelium and they have surprising health benefits. In some cultures, they’ve been used as medicine for thousands of years. They’ve been shown to help protect brain and gut health, and they contain polysaccharides that act as a prebiotic, providing food for beneficial bacteria in the gut. 

Mushrooms are one of the few foods that can provide vitamin D. If they’re exposed to ultraviolet light during the growing process, vitamin D synthesis is triggered. When buying mushrooms, check the nutrition label to see whether the kind you’re buying has vitamin D. Mushrooms also contain selenium, a trace mineral necessary to enzymes and proteins that help make DNA and protect against cell damage.