In the wild, oyster mushrooms grow on tree trunks. We can find them in forests on dead deciduous trees literally all over the world (except Antarctica), but their homeland is China.

Oyster mushrooms have amazing health benefits. They supply easily assimilable protein, folic acid, amino acids, Vitamin B and mineral salts. Substances which reduce cholesterol and sugar level in the blood have been detected too. Japanese scientists demonstrated that extract from oyster mushrooms could decrease tumors. Slovakian scientists extracted from them a substance which improves the immune system.

Young mushrooms are the best for cooking. Older ones could be stringy. You should keep cleaning to a minimum because they easily soak up water. Oyster mushrooms can be fried or baked and they are an excellent filling for crepes and dumplings.

Up to now I have fried oyster mushrooms in butter and served with garlic and dill. For the first time, I decided to bake them. From a few ingredients I made a very tasty and distinctively flavorsome salad.

Ingredients (for two people):

250g of oyster mushrooms

100g of fresh young spinach

8 dried tomatoes in olive oil

2 tablespoons of dried thyme

2 tablespoons of olive oil from dried tomatoes

4 garlic cloves

3 tablespoons of sunflower drupelets

salt and pepper

sauce:

4 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of honey

1 teaspoon of mustard

2 garlic cloves

1 tablespoon of water

Heat the oven to the 180C.

Cover a casserole dish with some baking paper and dot it with olive oil. Clean the mushrooms, and cut off the hard stalks. Put them on the dish, sprinkle with thyme and the olive oil from dried tomatoes, and spice them up with salt and pepper. Peel the garlic, cut into halves and add to the mushrooms. Bake for 15 minutes.

Fry the sunflower drupelets in a dry pan.

Mix in the olive oil, honey, water, mustard and crushed garlic to make a dip. Clean the spinach leaves, put them on a plate and sprinkle with the sauce. Slice the tomatoes and add with the baked mushrooms and garlic to the spinach. Sprinkle with the sunflower drupelets.

Serve with a fresh baguette and a glass of white wine.

Enjoy your meal!