Turkey Tail Spiced Hot Chocolate

Over this past year we have been fortunate to stumble across turkey tail mushrooms in most forests and gardens and have accrued many jars full of this powerfully medicinal fungi. It has variety of colourful stripes which resemble a turkey’s tail and has a few lookalikes on the forest floor, but when you learn to identify a turkey tail mushroom they are unmistakable and very easy to forage.

We have harvested ours from rotten stumps growing in neighbours gardens and, ironically, harvested a bunch from the neglected trees growing in a McDonald’s carpark. We have also found them growing prolifically on logs in most damp, dark forests and they are a very resilient mushroom to the weather changing. Turkey tail mushrooms have been of much interest lately for their powerful antioxidant properties which have helped with cancers, gut health, and a variety of other immunity related diseases, and there are a multitude of expensive supplements being produced at the moment. I think, why spend your hard earned money on medicine you have a right to access for free? You can have these amazing antioxidants whenever you need to, provided you know what you’re looking for!

As this recipe is medicinal the turkey tail provides no flavour but lifts this wintery spiced hot chocolate from being just delicious to also being an uplift for your immune system. Enjoy my fellow foragers!

Turkey Tail Spiced Hot Chocolate

Ingredients: Serves 4

5 cups plant based milk

4 heaped tablespoons cacao powder

6 tablespoons maple syrup (more or less depending on sweetness desire)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, grated

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons turkey tail mushroom powder

Directions:

1. Add all of the ingredients to a large pot and place over a medium heat. Use an immersion blender to blend it all together until smooth.
2. Heat through, stirring regularly, then pour into four cups. Add a cinnamon stick and/or star anise if desired. The winter spices will warm you when the it’s frosty outside and the turkey tails will lift your immune system so you can thrive on cold winter days!

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