Dried porcini mushrooms add a deep, woodsy taste to many dishes. Generally, the mushrooms are soaked in hot water for 30 minutes before using. Afterward, the water is used as stock and the softened mushrooms can be chopped and added to stews, casseroles and soups. This method of cooking retains the considerable nutritional benefits that can be found in these mushrooms.

One hundred grams of dried porcini mushrooms have only 26 calories and 0 grams fat. One hundred grams is slightly more than 3 oz With no cholesterol, no trans fat and no saturated fat, these mushrooms are an excellent way to add flavor to dishes without adding calories.

With 2 g fiber, porcini mushrooms are an easy way to add a small fiber boost to other dishes. The Harvard School of Public Health recommends that children and adults consume 14 g fiber for every 1,000 calories of food they eat each day. Since 1,000 calories worth of mushrooms have approximately 77 g fiber, the ratio of calories-to-fiber far exceeds the recommended amount, which allows you to enjoy lower fiber foods.

One hundred grams of porcini mushrooms satisfies 5 percent of your vitamin A needs and 10 percent of your vitamin C. They also satisfy 2 percent of the daily need for calcium and 8 percent of the daily need for iron. While these amounts may seem relatively small, they become significant when you realize that porcini mushrooms are used to flavor food, not a a substantive part of a meal.

One hundred grams of porcini mushrooms have 3 g protein. The USDA recommends that people consume 0.8 g of protein for every kg of body weight. This means that a 130-lb. women requires 47.37 g protein. The protein found in 100 g of porcini mushrooms satisfies 4.2 percent of this requirement.

With 484 mg potassium in every 100 g mushrooms, porcinis could be dangerous for patients with advanced kidney disease and other people who need to restrict their potassium. Excess dietary potassium can cause irregular heartbeats and even death in people whose kidneys cannot filter potassium from the blood.