What mushrooms should you use? As many different kinds as you can - variety is one of my favourite spices! I have used white button, brown button, cremini (baby portabella), large portabella, oyster, enoki, and shitake all in this soup.
Recipe: Mushroom Soup
Ingredients:
1 tbsp butter
1-3 red onions, diced
lots of mushrooms of various varieties, diced
2 litres soup stock
(optional) yams or potatoes - roasted
2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 tsp ground)
salt & pepper
(optional) sour cream or cream cheese
(optional) cilantro or parsley
Method:
> in a large pot, sauté the onions in the butter
> once the onions are translucent, add the garlic for a few minutes before adding the chopped mushrooms
> there are two methods for cooking the mushrooms: 1) add them all in, pour in the stock, then boil them for 20 minutes, or 2) sauté only some at a time, taking care to not over-crowd the pot, removing the cooked mushrooms before adding more; you will need to add another 1/2 tbsp to 1 tbsp of butter with each new batch of mushrooms
Both methods work, but they give slightly different flavours. Sautéing the mushrooms in an un-crowded pot gives a deeper, meatier flavour (option 2), and takes more time; throwing them all in with stock and turning it to boil for 20 minutes (option 1) gives more time to make other things. Use whichever method you have time for.
> once all the mushrooms are cooked, add in the roasted yam or potato. This is also a great place to sneak in other roasted vegetables like carrots and parsnips. If you do not have leftover or roasted vegetables, you could easily grate fresh ones into the soup.
> more stock, milk, or water may need to be added to adjust the consistency. For a creamier soup, add a dollop of sour cream or cream cheese.
> salt & pepper to taste; garnish with cilantro or parsley
We had home made oat bread with butter and kosher salt to go with our soup - it was easy and delicious! Heidi's recipe for the bread can be found here.
looks good...just wish my boys would eat mushrooms-meg
ReplyDeleteHi Meg - your boys can eat this! Start with fewer mushrooms and just use the plain button ones, chop them up really small so that they cannot be picked out. Slowly increase mushrooms in other things - spaghetti sauce, stir-fries and other dishes.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, my 5-year-old decided (all of a sudden) he did not like the cooked bell peppers in dinner. I said, "You do not have to like them, but you do have to eat them. Maybe your tastes will change again next week." And they usually do!