My Home-Style Creamy Mushroom Soup recipe! Creamy but not overwhelmingly so, gluten-free, full of earthy mushroom flavour and a beautiful texture and mouthfeel! Learn how to make this fresh and skip the canned versions! #mushroomsoup #notcannedbutfresh #makefromscratch
Use a soft brush to lightly brush off any dirt from the mushrooms. Then slice the mushrooms thinly.
Wash, peel and slice the onion into thin strips.
Remove the fibrous veins from the celery by breaking it into small sections by hand and tearing along the veins. Once the fibres are removed, wash and slice the celery into thin strips.
Wash, peel and chop the garlic finely.
Wash the parsley, pat dry and cut into ½” lengths.
COOKING METHOD
In a large pot, melt 20 g of butter over low heat and add the mushrooms. Sauté for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a bowl.
In the same pot, melt 30 g of butter over low heat and add in the onions. Fry until caramelised.
Add in the garlic and the celery. Fry for a few minutes until the celery is soft.
Add in half the bowl of cooked mushrooms (leaving the other half as garnishing), 1 litre of chicken stock and 1 bowl of water to the mixture.
Continue to simmer at medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat.
Use a hand-held blender to blend the soup in the pot until smooth.
Bring the pot of soup to a boil again over medium heat. Add in the 200 ml of fresh milk and stir well. Then remove from heat.
Taste the soup and add salt if preferred, stirring well.
When ready to serve, ladle the mushroom soup into individual bowls. Add 1 TBsp of heavy cream in the centre and top with the mushroom slices, fresh parsley and a sprinkle of ground black pepper if desired. Serve hot.
Notes
INGREDIENT TIPS
Avoid washing the mushrooms, otherwise they will absorb water and turn soggy during cooking.
Mix button mushrooms with some shitake mushrooms for a more ‘East-meets-West’ flavour.
Always turn the heat to low when using butter to fry anything because butter gets burnt very quickly.
Break the celery stem into small sections by hand and pull it along the veins to remove the fibres before chopping to avoid the soup becoming fibrous.
COOKING TIPS
Avoid boiling the soup vigorously once milk is added as milk tends to burn easily.
Save cooking time by using ready-made (preferably MSG free) chicken stock. I like the Heinz brand Chicken Broth.
Use a hand blender to blend the hot soup right in the pot, instead of waiting for the soup to cool before transferring to a food processor. It saves washing up and waiting time.
Use a blender with a stainless steel rod and blade, rather than plastic ones, so it can withstand the high temperature of the boiling soup. Make sure it is powerful enough. I love my Braun Hand Blender (available on Amazon) - powerful enough at 600W with stainless steel rods and blades and still pretty affordable for such a multi-purpose appliance.
Turn the hand blender speed to low initially to prevent the hot soup from splattering.