That depends what the mushrooms are being used for.

If it's for flavor, you're looking for that umami "oompf", and dried mushrooms have that in spades. If your recipe would work with them, I'd go for miso, dried seaweed, beef broth... something with that flavor profile is what you're looking for.

Mushrooms are also used a lot to "bulk up" recipes (they're cheap and tasty...). Depending on the texture of the dish, extra meat, ground or chopped zucchini, sweet potato, etc are all options - regular mushrooms don't have that much umami flavor, so you're really looking for texture and bulk, so go with something that complements the dish and adds those, and you'll be fine!

Good luck!

Cauliflower has a very dense meaty texture, and can take on different flavors. With recipes that call for mushrooms, you might have to compensate for the lack of mushroom flavor with some extra spices or marinades. Also, I find miso paste can have a similar flavor, but obviously it wouldn't give you the quantity of food mushrooms would.

Miso for flavor and firm tofu for filler.

Miso for flavor and firm tofu for filler.

Eggplant can also work when a meaty veg is needed.

I agree about eggplant. I am a vegetarian, and I typically always sub in eggplant or mushroom for meat, or for each other. Tofu is good too, you could marinate it in a vegetable brother to help it pick up some mushroom-esque flavors.

Seitan may actually be a good choice--it's savory and chewy.

I concur with the eggplant and tofu suggestions. If you need the umami, try oyster sauce (which I think might be mushroom based, unfortunately) or fish sauce.

Just checked and "vegetarian" oyster sauce is made with mushrooms, but normal is made with oyster broth.

I'm allergic to mushrooms, too! And restaurants almost never believe me, until I whip out the Epi-Pen. My dad's vegetarian, so I have to cook a lot of vegetarian recipes without mushrooms; I can't even touch them. I second a lot of the cauliflower recommendations, although thwy're a better replacement if you season them the way you would mushrooms BEFORE incorporating them into your dish. We also use a lot of seasoned tofu, white and regular eggplant. Good luck!

Having recently developed a mushroom allergy myself, I have a related question for other sufferers: does anyone know if we would also have reactions to truffle oil?

Hi tbsp,

I have the same reaction to truffle oil, sadly. Often, it's much worse because the amount of truffle oil I'll ingest (say, if I'm eating truffled fries) is much more than the amount of mushrooms I'd accidentally eat, simply because it's not as easy to identify the allergen. Whereas with one or two mushrooms consumed, I develop comparatively milder symptoms, after eating as little as a teaspoon of truffle oil, I develop breathing problems. Be careful!

desert truffles I buy them canned from Arabic/Middle Eastern.Most of the truffle oils (if not all ) in the market are not made of real truffles,maybe because of the very high price of the and how hard to harvest.I buy them usually $19 to $25 /can .And I know they are not the best quality out there as you can taste some sand in them ,the good ones have no sandy taste at all.but it is the only choice I have here.
the taste when cooked very close to mashroom.

middle eatern store*