My Favorite Mushroom Soup
While we were living in Washington my husband developed an interest in mushrooms. You may be surprised to know there is a large community of people who go foraging around in Washington's climate looking for wild edible mushrooms. (Not the crazy kind you may of heard of in your teenage years.)
It was a good way to encourage active outside time even in dreary weather.
While exploring this hobby my husband received a recipe from one our friends we had meet there and he has continually worked to improve this recipe each time.
The rainy Washington climate is perfect soup weather, so he had a lot of time to perfect this.
It has turned into one of my favorite things to eat. Seriously, I could have this soup every week and never tire of it.
I posted on my personal Facebook page the other day that we would be enjoying this soup for dinner and my sister showed an interest in getting the recipe from me.
I decided I should make a blog post about it, since I hadn't written one in a while.
I'm naming this recipe.....
My Hubby's Creamy Wannabe Wild Mushroom Soup
What you'll need:
2 - 8oz. containers of mushrooms (I like the Baby Bellas, but you can use whatever combination you like best or you find on sale. If you use foraged mushrooms make sure you are knowledge on what is poisonous and what is edible. See warnings and side notes below.) Sliced.
A few shallots. (If you can't find shallots use 1 half of a red onion and 1 half of a sweet onion.) Diced small.
1 stick of butter.
2/3 to 1 cup of flour depending on how thick you like your soup.
2 - 32 oz. containers of Beef Broth or Vegetable Broth. (It's really hard to find in some areas, but Mushroom Broth is best.)
1 - 16 oz. container of Heavy Cream
About a tablespoon each of Thyme
About a teaspoon and a half of Pepper (With both of these last two spices you'll want to just do what feels best to you and your taste buds. I estimate every time.)
Directions:
1. Start with washing and slicing your mushrooms. Dry roast these in a soup pot. You'll want to roast these until all the juice from the mushrooms is cooked off.
2. Dice your shallots or onions.
3. Add 1/2 of your butter to the pot with your diced shallots/onions and let these cook till tender.
4. Add the rest of your butter. Let it melt then add your flour creating a roux. Flour should be browned, so you lose that flour taste and making somewhat of blonde roux.
5. Slowly add your containers of broth. You want to add slowly add while mixing, so that you maintain the thickness. Add spices to taste. Let reduce down 1/3.
6. While broth is reducing temper your heavy cream in another smaller pot. You want to get to about the same temperature as your soup before you add it in.
7. Add your heavy cream to the soup pot when it reaches temperature.
8. Let soup simmer till desired thickness is achieved.
9. Enjoy with bread or crackers. If you want to be a little fancy bread bowls are awesome with this soup.
Sorry to say that I don't have a real time frame for this recipe. We normally just start it 2-3 hours before dinner time and let it simmer till we are ready to eat. Soup just seems better when it has simmered for a while. I will also update this next time we make this soup with a picture of the finished product. I was hungry and forgot to get the picture.
Here's the one picture I did get while sauteing the mushrooms and onions together.
I hope everyone enjoys this recipe. Please leave a comment if you have any questions or if you found any ways to make it better.
Thanks for reading!
*********************************
Side notes: Husband's recommendations for foraged mushrooms to use in this soup are
Oysters, Chanterelles, and/or Shaggy Parasols.
Warnings:
Be very careful because Shaggy Parasols are delicious, but Shaggy Stemmed Parasols are poisonous and they look very similar. So, please know what you are doing. You should always properly identify mushrooms before ingesting them. It is best done by or with the assistance of experts, not beginners.
