Mushroom Soup

I was in two minds about sharing this recipe as we are now well into spring. However, our snowy weather means a traditional mushroom soup is just the ticket for a cold day like this.

You’ll see that my recipe uses ‘a mix’ of mushrooms. It’s a good way of using up any leftovers you may have from other dishes. I must admit that’s what I tend to do and the flavour varies from soup to soup as a result. I don’t think that’s a problem but if you’d like to be a bit more specific about the combination of mushrooms you use you may find the mushroom guide from Just Add Mushrooms helpful.

Mushroom Soup

Serves 2 – 3

Difficulty Easy

Suitable for Vegetarian, Vegan and Gluten Free diets

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil.
• 1 – 2 cloves of garlic, chopped.
• 2 shallots, finely chopped.
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme.
• 1 medium potato, finely diced. {Floury potatoes are best}
• 300 g mushrooms. {I use a mix of mushrooms}
• 500 ml vegetable stock. {I used Kallø organic mushroom stock cubes. They are so tasty and definitely worth tracking down}
• 25 ml Sherry.
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Optional

• 2 tbsp single cream or alternative e.g. Oatly

Method

1. Put the rapeseed oil in a large bottomed pan and heat. Add the shallots, potato and garlic, stir then heat through until the shallots soften but don’t brown.
2. Add the dried thyme, stir and heat for a further 2 minutes.
3. Add the mushrooms, stir throughly, and cook for 3 – 5 minutes until they are almost cooked. Stir occasionally to make sure your ingredients aren’t sticking. Moisture should come out of the mushrooms and their flavour intensify. I often put the lid on at this point to speed up the cooking process.
4. Add your stock to the pan, bring to the boil and them simmer for 5 to 10 minutes or until all your ingredients are soft.
5. Add the sherry and simmer for 5 more minutes.
6. Remove from the heat and blend. If you want to add cream, do it at this stage. Make sure your soup is still hot then serve.

I don’t bother adding ‘cream’ to my soup as I don’t think it really needs it. I did add a swirl of Oatly before I served but that is more a case of ensuring it looks good rather than adding flavour. I also sautéed some sliced mushroom for decoration and sprinkled with parsley.

Adding a potato means the soup is thick as it can seem too watery without it. Using a potato as a thickener avoids the need for flour. The fact that potato sizes vary and some mushrooms will be ‘wetter’ than others means that you may need more than the suggested 500ml stock. If you do need to dilute your soup and aren’t adding cream, just use water. If you are adding cream, don’t dilute until all your cream has been added just in case you overdo it (we’ve all made that mistake at some point).

Enjoy!

Val x