Mushroom Soup

It’s easy enough to sauté up some mushrooms in butter, then add some flour, broth followed by a good glug of cream, and call it a day. And while it will taste just fine, it won’t really taste that much like mushrooms, except for the bites you get with mushroom bits in it.

So in presenting you with a mushroom soup recipe I wanted to make sure it actually tasted like – gasp, shock, horror – mushrooms!

And how do we achieve that? Simple: Blitz the soup! Only this way can we release all the gorgeous, sweet and earthy flavours locked up in the mushrooms into every luscious, creamy mouthful!!

Ingredients

• 30g / 2 tbsp unsalted butter

• 1 onion , chopped

• 2 garlic cloves , minced

• 400g / 14 oz white mushrooms (Note 1)

• 200g/ 7 oz Swiss Brown/Cremini mushroom (Note 1)

• 800 ml vegetable stock (bonus points for homemade veg stock! – Note 2), or chicken stock

• 1/4 tsp salt , cooking/kosher

• 1/8 tsp black pepper

• 200 ml crème fraiche or cream (any full-fat) (Note 3)

Garnishes/Serving

• Croutons (Note 4)

• Cream or extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling

• Parsley (roughly chopped), chervil (if you're feeling a bit fancy), or thyme leaves

• Bread for dunking

Directions

1. Chopping mushrooms: Cut mushrooms into 4 slices, then dice into 3 or 4 pieces.

2. Saute onion and garlic: Melt butter in a large pot over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes until softened, but not golden.

3. Cook mushrooms: Add mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Do not try to brown; they won't as the pot is too crowded but we do not need colour.

4. Simmer 15 min: Add vegetable stock, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium and simmer gently for 15 minutes without a lid.

5. Cream: Stir in cream (or crème fraiche), then simmer for another 5 minutes.

6. Blitz: Transfer to a blender (do in batches, if necessary). Remove the cap from the feeding hole in the blender lid (Note 5), cover the hole with a folded tea towel. Blend until completely smooth.

7. Return to pot, simmer for a minute or two until bubbles caused by blending largely subside and soup is hot.

8. Serve: Ladle into bowls. Garnish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or cream, croutons and parsley or (if you're feeling a bit fancy), chervil. Don't forget bread for dunking!

1. Mushrooms – I like to use a combination to balance flavour with colour. Swiss Brown/Cremini mushrooms have more mushroomy flavour but make the soup browner, whereas standard white mushrooms keep the soup colour paler. You could just use all of either. Even all white mushrooms is still fabulously mushroomy, and soup will be even paler!

2. Stock – The better the stock, the better the soup flavour! It’s really worth making your own vegetable stock, yielding very high returns for minimal effort and clean up.

3. Chicken stock will also work wonderfully here if you’re happy to introduce meat into the dish – homemade stock of course is best!

4. Creme fraiche – Creme fraiche is a form of soured cream. It’s tastes like something in between sour cream and regular pouring cream, and is lightly tangy. It’s also thicker than pouring cream and can be dolloped. It lends a lovely subtle freshness to the soup thanks to the mild acidity. Creme fraiche can be hard to find and is somewhat pricey. Regular pouring cream is perfectly good in it’s place and no less delicious!

5. Croutons – Cut any bread (crustless) into 0.75 cm / ⅓” cubes. Toss in a little olive oil to coat, sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Bake at 180°C/350°F for 10 min, tossing halfway, until golden and crunchy. Cool fully on tray before using.

6. Blending –  Doing this allows heat to escape and prevents a hot soup explosion! If you blend hot soup with a tightly sealed it, the lid will blow off and you’ll end up with hot soup all over you and your kitchen … been there, done that!

7. Storage – Soup will keep for 4 to 5 days in the fridge, or freeze for 3 months.

8. Nutrition excludes toppings. Because I cannot be held responsible for how much croutons you sprinkle on your soup, and how much butter you slather on your bread!!

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