The weather in Bahrain calls for a soup. Cream of mushroom soup is something that we both enjoy. It’s been on my “to do” list for ages. Last week both of us were feeling a bit under the weather, so it was like the scene was set for a bowl of steaming hot soup!
I’ve tried versions of mushroom soup from different restaurants. Most of the time, the cream of mushroom soup would just taste like a steaming bowl of cream and butter, with no trace of mushroom whatsoever. Recently we tried it from a new restaurant and it hit all the right notes. First and foremost the mushroom was there and it was creamy! I was looking for such a recipe and finally found it here.
The texture and flavour of this soup is great! There are bits of mushroom floating around in this creamy soup, flavoured with thyme and parsely.
Btw, I’m sorry I dont have step by step pictures of this one. While I was making this, I had someone standing right next to me chanting “I’m hungry, hungry boys are angry boys”, so I completely forgot about the step by step pics, sigh!
So what do you say, shall we go and make this heart-warming soup ;)? Please make sure you read the notes section before you proceed with the recipe.
Recipe adapted from here.
- Regular white mushrooms – 500 gms, cleaned, quartered or sliced
- Lemon juice – 1 Tbsp
- Unsalted butter – 1 Tbsp
- Shallots / small onion – 6, sliced
- Dried thyme – 1 tspn
- Bay leaf – 1 small
- Pepper powder – ½ tspn
- Milk – 2.5 cups (refer notes)
- Chicken stock / veg stock / water – ½ – 1 cup (refer notes)
- Minced parsley for garnish
- Salt
- Salted butter – ½ tbsp
- Plain flour (maida) – ½ tbsp
- Whipping cream – ½ – ¾ cup
- Keep aside 4-5 mushrooms. Slice them finely and stir fry them with salt and pepper till it becomes golden brown n crispy.
- In a food processor, coarsely chop rest of the mushrooms and lemon juice.
- Melt butter in (4-5 quart) sauce pan and lightly sauté sliced shallots on medium heat. Add mushrooms, thyme and bay leaf, sauté over moderate heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the liquid that is released from the mushrooms disappears.
- Add salt, pepper, cream and chicken stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add white sauce (if using) and cook for another 5-7 mins. Add more salt and pepper if required and remove from fire.
- Add chopped fresh parsley and garnish with stir fried mushrooms.
- To make white sauce:
- Melt butter in a deep sauce pan and add flour. Roast it till the raw smell goes, 3-5 mins, on low flame. Add the whipping cream gradually and mix well. If it becomes too thick, add little milk to loosen it. It should have a pouring consistency.
You can also add Maggie or Knorr soup cubes instead of chicken stock for more flavour.
Since I used low fat milk, the soup wasnt creamy. So I added the white sauce to make it creamier.
The original recipe uses 2 cups of heavy / whipping cream instead of milk and 1.5 cups of chicken stock. If you prefer a rich and creamier version, you can use that. Also you can use half milk and half cream. You can customise the recipe to suit your requirements.