Mushroom Cream Soup

Another soup recipe, quick, tasty, really easy and great on a chilly autumn day. 

It also optionally uses roasted walnuts, still part of our glut this year. 

 

 

What you need

• 1 tblsp butter
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 300 g sliced fresh mushrooms (substitute in parts with other fungi)
• 2 cloves of garlic, pressed
• 2 vegetable stock cubes
• 100 ml Madeira (alternatively Marsala or Sherry; the cheaper option would be white wine)
• 200-250 ml double cream (single cream if you prefer something a bit less filling – and tasty)
• salt and cayenne pepper to taste
• optionally a handful of freshly cracked, coarsely chopped, roasted walnuts.

What you do

1. Melt the butter in a casserole, add the onions and sauté until they are golden.
2. Add the mushrooms (and other fungi if you use them) and sauté till they are slightly browned and getting soft.
3. Season with garlic and a bit of salt and cayenne pepper (you may need more after having added the cream).
4. Add the stock cubes and the Madeira and reduce the liquid a bit.
5. The cover with water and simmer for about 10 minutes till the mushrooms are quite soft.
6. Liquidise the soup until it is quite smooth.
7. Add the double cream and stir, warming the soup up again.
8. Season to taste with salt and cayenne pepper (see above).
9. Serve with a sprinkling of the walnut (dry-roasted in an iron frying pan until there is that lovely smell of walnuts).

Remarks

To make this a slightly cheaper meal, although one that is not as concentratedly mushroomy, add a finely cubed medium-sized potato after step 3 and boil until the potato is soft (may take a little longer).

For vegans and for people needing to watch their weight, leave out the cream, obviously, which makes the soup quite a bit more concentrated but also less smooth. Soja cream may make a subsitute but I have never tried that. As a binding agent, which is also a role cream plays, I think, the above-mentioned potato may help to cut out the dairy stuff.

You could also roast the walnuts a bit more, then grind them and add them to the soup as a substitute for cream.