Simple Lion's Mane Mushroom Recipe (2024)

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Now that you’ve harnessed yourself with all the information on lion’s mane mushroom, here is a simple lion’s mane mushroom recipe to help get you started on the culinary side of these exquisite fungi. This recipe yields an incredibly buttery, rich, and meaty side dish!

Side dishes don’t have to be complicated and this simple lion’s mane mushroom recipe fits the bill for that. Sautéed in a medley of butter, garlic, and thyme, this simple recipe will have you buying all the mushrooms just to make more! There is something so special about the buttery, meatiness of this dish and also how you can choose to incorporate it into another dish or eat it on its own. To be honest, we could not stop snacking on these! They’re almost like chips, and if you close your eyes, you could kind of pretend they are.

In general, mushrooms, not just lion’s mane mushrooms, are such a great ingredient to put in your everyday meals. They are so extremely versatile. Not convinced or maybe haven’t thought of more ways to incorporate into your everyday cooking? Here’s a list that may convince you:

• Meaty. Yes, even though they aren’t actual meat, mushrooms have a meatier consistency and often times can be substituted for real meat if you are vegetarian or vegan or just trying to incorporate more of a plant-based diet.
• Blank slate. Mushrooms to me are like pasta and rice. They’re blank slates. They take on whatever flavors you add to them and soak it up and really transform a dish.
• Great bulking up ingredient. As I mentioned above, mushrooms can be a meat substitute but not only that, mushrooms are great to bulk up dishes. I’ve made dishes where I felt like I needed more volume so I would put mushrooms into a food processor and pulse a few times to get it into a finer ground to add to my dishes.

Why You’ll Love This

There’s definitely a lot to love about this fungi varietal, but more specifically here are the reasons why I love this simple lion’s mane recipe:

• Simple. As the title of this recipe suggests, this recipe is…simple. Nothing hard about it, nothing too extraordinary, but even still, just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it doesn’t have flavor.
• Flavorful. Let’s be real — when you toss anything in garlic, butter, and fresh thyme, you’re going to end up with an incredibly flavorful dish. And being that mushrooms are being cooked in this mixture, you are going to get a little bit extra flavor since mushrooms will soak it all up.
• Great beginner recipe. If it’s your first time dabbling with cooking with lion’s mane mushrooms, then this simple mushroom recipe is the perfect starting point for you.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Simple recipe, even simpler ingredients to make this lion’s mane mushroom recipe. Make sure to scroll down to view the full recipe for exact measurements.

• Butter
• Garlic
• Fresh thyme
• Lion’s mane mushrooms

How To Make Lion’s Mane Mushroom Recipe

Here is a general overview of the steps involved to make this mushroom recipe. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for the full recipe.

Prepare the mushrooms. Take a lion’s mane mushroom and gently begin to split it in half by pulling it apart with your fingertips. Hold it in the palm of your hands and using your thumb, gently pull it apart. Pull the mushrooms into several smaller pieces.

Enhance the flavor of the butter. Begin by sautéing butter, oil, garlic, and thyme sprigs on low heat in a cast iron skillet. Continually move around the thyme and garlic to prevent burning. Sauté this for about 5 minutes then remove the thyme sprigs. Using a slotted spoon, you may remove the garlic if you feel that they’re on the verge of burning.

Cook the mushrooms. Add the mushrooms to the skillet, taking care to not overcrowd the skillet. You may have to cook in three separate batches like I did. Let the mushroom sit on one side for 3-4 minutes so it gets nice and crispy brown then flip and repeat. Repeat until all mushrooms have been cooked. You’ll need to add more butter and oil with each batch.

Recipe Tips, Substitutions, and Variations

• Don’t wash your mushrooms. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to wash mushrooms. Sure, there’s dirt on them but because they’re such porous little guys, running them under water will cause them to take in all the water (which also doesn’t help if you want to brown your mushrooms). All you have to do is take a damp paper towel and wipe their exterior. You can also gently tap it against the sink to get the excess dirt off.
• Use different varieties. This recipe is not just for lion’s mane mushrooms. You can use whatever mushroom varietal you have and make this simple recipe. Combining different varieties is also a great idea.
• Work in batches. This helps the mushrooms get brown and crispy vs. essentially steaming them. Because of how many mushrooms I had, I had to cook in three batches in a 12-inch skillet.
• Use whole, smashed garlic or garlic powder. Okay, so, minced garlic tends to burn over high heat and this is why this recipe calls for sautéing everything then removing it from the skillet. If you prefer, you can take garlic cloves and smash them and cook them whole to prevent burning. Alternatively, use garlic powder.
• Use a high-smoke point oil. Avocado oil works nicely for this reason and since the heat does get a little high to brown the mushrooms, the avocado oil helps the butter not get burned.
• Trust the process. It can sometimes take a while for mushrooms to get brown, but trust the process and leave the mushrooms be. They’ll get brown and crispy in due time!
• Make it vegan. To make this dish vegan, use vegan butter.

Storage and Reheating Instructions

You may store garlic thyme butter lion’s mane mushrooms in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Highly suggest eating them or adding it into another dish before then, otherwise, it could get too mushy.

To reheat, pop in the microwave to warm through or warm through on the stovetop.

What to Serve with Lion’s Mane Mushrooms

In addition to being great on their own, mushrooms are great side dish additions to many recipes as well. Here are some great ways to incorporate mushrooms into your other dishes:

• Bowls. Why not add a few spoonfuls into a Middle Eastern Inspired Ground Beef Bowl, Easy Salmon Rice Bowls, Falafel Buddha Bowl, Blackened Shrimp Bowls, or Burrito Bowls.
• Pasta, rice, and chicken. Mushrooms are always a good idea when adding them into pasta, rice, or chicken dishes such as: Mushroom Risotto, Creamy One Pot Mushroom and Leek Pasta, Marsala Chicken Rigatoni and Mushroom Pasta, and Creamy Skillet Mushroom Chicken.
• Soups and stews. As previously mentioned, mushrooms can help make dishes more hearty and what better way than with soups and stews? Instant Pot Creamy Mushroom and Chicken Wild Rice Stew is a cozy option!
• Pizza. Mmm, I LOVE mushrooms on pizza, especially my Triple Mushroom and Herb Grilled Pizza.
• Sandwiches. This Caramelized Onion, Mushroom, and Swiss Melt is the ultimate grilled cheese.