This homemade creamy mushroom soup is a real treat. The beige gloop in a can doesn’t even come close to the stuff made with fresh ingredients—and spoiler alert! There’s booze in this recipe! Cookbook author Renée Kohlman has stirred in just a wee bit of sherry because it really adds another layer of flavour to the soup. Tossing the sliced mushrooms in fresh lemon juice is a trick she learned at culinary school. The acidity helps balance out the richness of the butter and cream. She then likes to purée half of the soup just to make it extra creamy, but if you want to keep it chunky, that’s fine too. Have ample toasty bread on hand so the dunkers can dunk and the spooners can spoon creamy mushroom bits onto the toast.
Creamy Mushroom Soup
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
4 1 lb assorted fresh mushrooms, such as cremini, oyster, button, or shiitake
Juice of 1 lemon
6 Tbsp butter
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup sherry
4 cups low-sodium chicken (or vegetable) broth
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
½ cup whipping (35%) cream
½ cup milk
2 Tbsp chopped parsley (flat-leaf or curly)
Garnish
1 Tbsp butter (optional)
½ cup sliced mushrooms (optional)
RECIPE
Wash the mushrooms, pat them dry, and trim off any tough stems. Cut the mushrooms into .-inch-thick slices. Place them in a large bowl and toss with the lemon juice.
In a Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Stir in the diced onion and cook until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, garlic, salt, and pepper. Turn down the heat to medium and cook until the mushrooms release most of their liquid, about 10 minutes.
Add the flour and stir to coat the mushroom mixture. Cook for 1 minute, then stir in the sherry and cook for another minute. Scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Stir in the broth, mustard, and thyme leaves. Cover, increase the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove the soup from the heat. Purée 2 cups of soup in a blender. This is hot liquid, so be careful! Return the purée to the soup and stir in the cream and milk. If the soup cools down too much, place it over low heat to warm through for a few minutes. Stir in the parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper.
If you’d like to garnish your soup, melt the butter in a small pan. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook on both sides until browned. Garnish the soup with the fried mushrooms.
Recipe by Renée Kohlman from Vegetables: A Love Story, copyright © 2021 by Renée Kohlman.