As a New York native, Chef Chris recently participated at the NYC Climate Week and Food for Climate League highlighting his grass-fed beef and mushroom blended burger. The formula is 70% grass-fed ground beef mixed with 30% mushrooms. “I find that shiitakes add a great umami, earthy flavor when combined with the beef.” says Chris. High in Vitamin D and a good source of antioxidants and potassium, this veggie can add a nutrient boost to any recipe, even a good old-fashioned burger. Additionally, mushrooms are a great sustainable product requiring very little land and water to produce. A recent study found that the production of one pound of mushrooms required only 1.8 gallons of water and 1.0 kilowatt hours of energy and generated only 0.7 pounds of CO2 equivalent emissions. In addition, the annual average yield of mushrooms is 7.1 pounds per square foot which means that up to 1 million pounds of mushrooms can be produced on just one acre. For this recipe Chris boosted up the flavor with some more vegetables like smoky roasted carrots which act as a vegetarian bacon. A great accompaniment is fresh pickled vegetables.