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Homemade Mushroom Soup |  |
Homemade & Home Delicious. Real Food, Fresh & Family-Tested. Budget Friendly. Great for Meal Prep. Easy DIY. Low Carb. Vegetarian.
Meet St. Louis' Very Own "Mushroom Lady"
Quick Note: This story and recipe were first published in my hometown newspaper here in St. Louis, hence the local angle ...
Missouri’s Bootheel and the country of Japan share a mycological treasure: climates, water and timber perfect for cultivating mushrooms. Leave it to a clever Englishwoman to figure that out.
Nicola Macpherson is St. Louis’ very own "mushroom lady". Her company, Ozark Forest, grows shiitake and oyster mushrooms year-round on a family farm using renewable, sustainable and organic agro-forestry practices.
Whew. Yeah, that's a mouthful, am I right?
So how does she do that, really, in lay mushroom terms?
- First, specially harvested oak limbs are inoculated with mushroom spawn.
- Then they're left alone to incubate for six to nine months.
- Come spring, the spawn are soaked in water for 24 hours.
- Then comes the real magic. After a few days? The mushrooms are ready to harvest!
Ozark Forest mushrooms mostly get grabbed up by the chefs at local farm-to-plate restaurants. But keep a look-out for a woman with a lovely English accent peddling mushrooms at weekend fairs and farmers markets.
Until then, for a luscious pot of creamy mushroom soup, use fresh mushrooms foraged all on your own ... in the supermarket .
About This Recipe
This is a creamy mushroom soup, packed with bits of mushroom and an abundance of mushroom flavor.
The distinctive ingredients are the mushrooms (an entire pound!), milk and cream for the soup's liquid plus a touch of sherry and nutmeg that make all the difference.
Ingredients = chicken stock + butter + mushrooms + onion + flour + milk + cream + sherry + salt & white pepper + grated nutmeg
Please do make Mushroom Soup at least one full day – and preferably two – ahead of time, this gives the flavors plenty of time to meld together into something extra special.
The recipe makes about 5-1/2 cups, but can easily be scaled up or down. The soup is rich so half-cup servings are often appreciated if the soup is being served as a starter.
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KITCHEN CLASSIC: HOMEMADE MUSHROOM SOUP
Time to table: Minimum 24 hours, preferably 48 hours
Makes 5-1/2 cups
- 4 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 small onion, diced small
- 1 pound pound fresh mushrooms, trimmed, a few sliced, the rest chopped fine
- 1 tablespoon flour
- Hot Chicken Stock
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon dry sherry
- Salt & white pepper to taste
- Grated nutmeg, for serving
Bring the chicken stock to a boil in the microwave.
Meanwhile, in a large, heavy saucepan or a Dutch oven, melt the butter on medium heat. Add the onion and "sweat" for about 10 minutes. Add the mushrooms as they’re prepped, cook until just beginning to soften.
Stir in the flour until all the lumps are gone, let cook for a minute or two to cook off the floury taste. A quarter cup at a time at first, slowly add the hot stock, stirring the whole time, letting each addition mix in completely before adding another. After all the stock is stirred in, bring the liquid to a boil, adjust the heat to maintain a slow simmer. Let cook for about an hour, until the mushrooms are soft.
Stir in the milk, cream and sherry; heat through but do not boil. Season to taste with salt and white pepper.
Cool and refrigerate for 24 - 48 hours for the deep mushroom flavor to develop. Before serving, gently rewarm but don’t let boil. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with nutmeg. Savor every spoonful.
VARIATIONS On occasion, I've lightened this soup considerably by using Smart Balance instead of butter and fat-free half 'n' half for the milk and cream. I've also thickened it with arrowroot rather than flour but have learned to do the thickening at the very end of cooking, rather than the beginning. To lower the calories a little, use just 2 tablespoons butter but really allow the time for the mushrooms to soak up the butter.
Ditch that salty water that's boxed up as chicken broth, instead just combine the bones from a rotisserie chicken and some water. See? It's No-Big-Deal Homemade Chicken Stock. Please know, the texture of this soup is thinner (soupier?!) than the heavy gloppy stuff that canned soup has trained our tastebuds to expect. For a thicker soup, use less stock or work in another tablespoon or two of flour. To "sweat" onions is to gently cook them without allowing the onions to turn color, without browning them. For this delicious soup, choose shiitake, cremini or baby bella mushrooms. These can be expensive so to economize, it's just fine to use half the less expensive white button mushrooms. I like to keep food recognizable, making it clear what's on a plate or inside a bowl. So once for this soup, I broke apart the mushroom caps into large chunks with my hands, a technique first learned with the World's Best Green Bean Casserole. That said, for this soup, I think the texture is best when most (let's say 3/4) of the mushroom pieces are chopped small and the rest are sliced to show off the traditional mushroom shape. Use fresh-grated nutmeg if you can, it really makes a difference. Surprisingly, this soup is as good cold as it is hot. Who knew?!
WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 5 & PointsPlus 6 & SmartPoints 10 & Freestyle 9 & myWW green 9 & blue 9 & purple 9 & future WW points.
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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences.
Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, for more scratch cooking recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.
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My husband loves mushrooms, I have been looking for easy soup from longtime. This looks delcious.
ReplyDeletePadmaja ~ Oh then your husband will completely love this. Some times the simplest things can be the very best.
ReplyDeleteIsn't life better with your own mushroom lady? You're so right--I love the woodsy flavor of these mushrooms, so I know I'll love your recipe. Your creamy bowl of soup looks so appetizing.
ReplyDeleteHi, Alanna!
ReplyDeleteThis work is very good
thank you
Mushrooms definitely rule!
ReplyDeleteAlanna,
ReplyDeleteI like to add about an ounce of reconstituted wild mushrooms (and the juice) to my soup. Makes for a much richer flavor.
Are the mushrooms thinly sliced or prepped another way? Also...I found that a good bit of the broth evaporated when simmered with the lid off. I was a little disappointed in the texture...it didn't get very creamy with only 1/2 tab flour.
ReplyDeleteSusan ~ Thanks! I fell in love with mushroom soup all over again, testing this recipe.
ReplyDeleteDavid ~ Thanks!
D ~ So do you!
Kevin ~ Great idea, I'll try that next time.
Anonymous ~ I'm sorry the soup was disappointing. And good catch on the prep. I like to break fresh mushrooms into pieces. That way, as they cook and shrink, they seem a lot more like mushroom vs bits of soft mush (ha!) in canned mushroom soup. The soup does have a consistency some thinner than canned soup, if that's the comparison. If you'd like to correspond about this a bit more, feel free to e-mail me directly.
I love the idea of trying this as a cold soup - that wouldn't have occurred to me, somehow. Thanks!
ReplyDelete