Best Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup Recipe

Chef Mavens Best Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup

When it rains, it pours… This week started off with a bang, first I had to go to traffic court for a ticket that was dismissed (awesome!) yet still had to wait for yet another visit form the heating guy to fix my boiler (yet again!).

While this was happening, I needn’t worry too much as I had made a very easy and quick Cream of Mushroom soup over the weekend and was reheating this delicious and easy to make vegetarian soup up for lunch which was divine on this super rainy day.

Over the weekend I had stopped by my now favorite grocery store called Adam’s Fair Acre Farms Grocery Store. Going wild, I selected with care, loads of fresh mushrooms knowing all the while exactly what I was to make with them.

You see, I had recently purchased one of those ‘blender sticks’ so make the soon to be ‘creamiest’ cream of mushroom soup I had ever made in my life. What resulted was sheer fantasticness… ok I know that’s not a real word, but heck – this is an easy soup to make and the next time you see that your local grocery store has mushrooms on sale – go for it!

 

 

 

Best Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup Recipe:

This recipe yields roughly 6 cups of awesome goodness and earthly cream of mushroom soup. By using a variety of mushrooms, your soup will be extra earthy and delicious more so than if you used just one type of mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 4 to 5 cups of sliced mushrooms – all sorts. I used shitake, portabella, crimini, oyster & white button mushrooms. Simply clean with a damp towel, then slice them up stems and all. Nothing to waste here… If you are using the parge portabellas – don’t forget to remove the ‘gills’ located on the underneath side of the mushroom.=
• Kosher Salt & Fresh Cracked Pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon of ‘Better than Bouillon’ Mushroom Base (or a Vegetable Base if you can’t locate the Mushroom Base Bouillon)
• 1 medium sized onion – chopped fine
• 2 long celery sticks chopped
• 3 garlic cloves – chopped/minced fine
• 3 tablespoons olive oil & 1 or 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups 2% milk
• 1 cup light cream or half n half
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons sherry
• 1 tablespoon or more of fresh chopped flat leaf parsley for garnish

And what’s Better than Bullion? Well if you haven’t heard of it yet – here’s a resource link to learn more. Most grocery stores will carry the beef, chicken and vegetable. Don’t be afraid to approach your store manager and ask for other types (say the lobster or mushroom)  – That’s what the store manager is there for!!!

To learn more about this product, you may click here: http://www.soupsonline.com/m-48-better-than-bouillon.aspx?gclid=CIPAkaCLrKcCFQY65QodmT2aDA – and if you look around on this site, they even carry organic bases – now that’s service!

Equipment:

Large deep soup pot with lid
Blender/Food Processor or Blender Stick

Place mushrooms to cook in the soup pot

Directions:

1. Add the olive oil to the soup dish on medium heat. Add onions and stir. Cook onions till semi-translucent  – roughly five minutes.
2. Add chopped celery and minced garlic, stir and let cook for another five minutes.
3. Now add remaining mushrooms including stems to pot. Add fresh squeezed lemon juice to pot. Add additional olive oil if needed. And the mushroom base bullion. Cook stirring occasionally for at least five minutes.
4. Now add 1/2 cup of the water and let cook for another five minutes.
5. Add flour and stir. You will want to cook the ‘flour’ just a bit before adding the remaining wet ingredients (except for the sherry, butter & light cream/half n half – that all happens when you are about to serve up the soup)
6. Add milk to the pot and additional remaining 1/2 cup of water. Stir and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Soup should thicken once it starts simmering. Remember to stir so that the rue you created with the flour doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot, but instead thickens up your soup.
7. At this point, you can either use your blender stick – or let cool slightly before putting portions of your soup into either your blender or food processor. Pulse at first, and be careful if soup is still hot – hot steam wants to escape, and this is especially true when using a blender. I have been known to remove that little center round button on the top lid of the blender, then cover that hole with a clean dish towel – and with keeping hand on it before starting to pulse to allow some of the steam to escape and not make a complete mess of my kitchen. You may have seen chefs do this on TV…
8. Once all the soup has been blended (see now you know why I have been wanting a blender stick for years) and happy to say it was the easiest soup to make since getting myself one of these blender sticks. No more transferring the soup to a bowl then back again to the soup pot.
9. Return the now blended soup back to the pot. Turn back up the heat on low and add the light cream/half n half. Also add your salt & pepper along with the sherry and the butter. Continue heating till it just starts to simmer. You are now ready to serve it up!
10. Chop parlsey and place on top of fresh mushroom soup – call in the troops and enjoy your meal.

Note when reheating this soup, reheat on a low setting. If you allow it to come to a roaring boil, you might end up curdling the soup due to the cream content.

Chow ciao for now…

The Chef Maven