Creamy Mushroom Soup

I have tried variety of mushroom soups at all sorts of restaurants but I haven't come across a single recipe that I wanna go back and try! Most often they are thin or watery, milky, oily or just okayish giving that incomplete feeling.

I love mushrooms! It had been a while having made or had mushroom soup.. So after a lot of surfing, reading and trying various recipes, I made this delicious creamy mushroom soup for all the mushroom lovers like me! 

The cooking time is longer than most methods but it is simple and well worth the taste!

Serves 4. Preparation Time: 10 mins. Cooking Time: 20-30 mins

Ingredients:

For Soup:
300 - 400gms (3 cups) button mushrooms, sliced
1 shallot or onion small, thinly sliced
2 tbsp chopped garlic
3-4 tbsp butter
½ cup cream or milk
1 heaped spoon of wheat flour 
4 cups vegetable stock or water
Salt & Pepper as per taste

For Garnish:
Grated Cheese as required

Method:

1. Firstly, thoroughly clean the mushrooms of all the dirt, mud etc under running water. Now thinly slice them all. I also finely chopped some mushrooms and kept it aside.

2. Thinly slice the shallot and finely chop the garlic. 

3. In a pan, melt all the butter. Once melted, add the sliced mushrooms to it and mix well. 

The pot may look full, but in a few seconds the mushrooms will start oozing out the moisture and reduce in size. 

3. Let it sit on heat for about 10-15 mins. It will leave out all the water and we need to wait until all the water is dried out. Please note that this needs to be done on a slow flame.

4. Once all the water is dried out and the mushrooms are darker, we now add the onions & garlic and let them cook with some salt for about 2-3 mins until soft. 

5. Once sautéed, we now mix in the wheat flour and mix it well and cook it for 2 mins to make sure the flour is not raw. 

6. The flour will get slightly brownish - a sign that it has cooked. We now mix in ½ to ¾ cup stock or water. It should look something like this:

7. Get it off heat and blend this mixture into a smooth purée. 

     

8. Now get it back on the stove and mix in the balance stock/water. Add cream or milk, salt, pepper and the chopped mushrooms. Let it simmer for 2 mins and its ready to serve!

 

Garnish with grated cheese & serve hot! Enjoy!

Notes & Tips:

1. I like it thick, so the quantity of stock/water can be used accordingly. 

2. You may also add some fresh thyme sprigs with step 3. But make sure to remove them before adding flour. 

3. I have used wheat flour for nutritional reasons, you may very well use all purpose flour/maida. It doesn't make much difference to the taste.

4. If you have fresh parsley, you can use that for garnish and add some chopped bits to the soup for additional flavour.

5. I had access to button mushrooms only, but you can add other types - portabella, shitake etc. and adjust the quantity. Just make sure button mushrooms are more in quantity than others to balance the other types. 

If using shitake, soak them before hand and use the soaked water for stock!