Recipe to beat high blood pressure: sausage-stuffed cremini mushrooms

Each type of mushroom offers its own blend of nutrients, with shiitake mushrooms among the healthiest you can eat. Cremini and portobello mushrooms are also healthy picks, with all three rich in healing phytochemicals for battling high blood pressure.

In just a single serving (two mushrooms), you can get 25 mg Vitamin C, 15 mg magnesium, 239 mg potassium and 53 mg calcium. Combining cremini mushrooms with sausage stuffing is an even tastier way of eating healthy, with this recipe requiring 20 minutes for prep and cooking, each, and serves six when you're done. Just make sure to read the recipe from start to finish before beginning.

Ingredients

• 12 large cremini mushrooms
• 3/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs. Try and stay away from seasoned bread crumbs so the rest of the flavours in this recipe have a chance to stand on their own.
• 2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese. If you can find a low-sodium version, your dish will be just that much healthier.
• 2 oz chicken sausage links with the casings removed
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 small red pepper, finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp white or black pepper

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 200°C (400°F).
• Pull the stems off the mushrooms and finely chop the stems.
• Mix 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese into a bowl.
• Use a large non-stick skillet (cast iron works best) and apply non-stick cooking spray to it in a light coating, then set it over medium heat.
• Cook the sausages until they begin to brown, breaking up with the side of a spoon. This should take roughly five minutes.
• Add in the onion, red pepper and mushroom stems and stir everything together until it's cooked and soft, which should take about five minutes.
• Once that's almost done, add in the rest of the bread crumbs and white/black pepper and stir it together thoroughly, then remove it from the heat.
• Mound the stuffing into the mushroom caps so they're evenly distributed.
• Place them on a 33 x 23-centimetre baking dish so the mushroom caps are stuffing-side up, then sprinkle the the Parmesan cheese mixture over top of them.
• Bake them in the oven for about nine minutes, or until they're heated throughout.

Once you take the mushroom caps out, let them sit and cool for a couple of minutes before serving.