recipe revisited

here is the step-by-step for one of my favourite soups i gave the recipe for in a previous post. no need to look back for the ingredients and measurements, all is here [there are some other recipes for some great soups in that post too, however] .

stay away from the canned version of this one, the following is extremely easy and even better — especially since you made it yourself! trust me, you won't be sorry you took the time to make this. it goes even faster if you buy fresh presliced mushrooms.

easy cream of mushroom soup

this can be made dairy with whole milk & butter or parve [non dairy] with soymilk and margarine with just as good results. while it does not use cream, i do suggest using whole milk though you can make it with 2% with good results.

ingredients:

2 - 3 small containers of white button or café mushrooms, sliced
1/2 small onion, diced
3 -4 vegetable bouillon cubes [or equivalent in powder ~ 2 1/2 T]
2 c water
2 tbsp butter or oil

1/4 c butter or margarine
3 tbsp flour
1 -2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

3 c whole milk or plain soymilk

method:

in a pan, heat 1 tbsp oil or butter & fry the onions over med-low heat until coloured [lightly browned] and remove to a plate to cool. the onions should not crisp as they fry .... they will be pureed later therefore turn down the heat if they fry too quickly.

while onions are frying, slice the mushrooms.

add these to a large soup pot with 1 tbsp oil or butter and saute until they soften, approx. 5 min on medium heat.

add the water and the bouillon cubes or powder and stir to dissolve. break up the cubes first to speed things up. cover the pot and simmer 20 to 25 minutes over low heat.

once this is done, set it aside and take another pot. and melt the 1/4 c of butter or margarine on low heat.

add the flour and make a roux. this roux is not 1:1 so don't add more flour.

keeping the heat low, stir it constantly so it does not burn. it should be bubbling.

cook about 3 to 4 minutes and then add the milk and whisk quickly so that lumps do not form [or any that have formed will be dissoved]. turn up the heat med-high and keep whisking until it is thickened, approx. 5 to 10 minutes. it should not be super thickened in terms of final texture.

add this milk mixture with the salt and pepper to the mushroom mixture and stir well to blend.

in a blender, add the onions you fried and about 1/3 to 1/2 of the mushroom mixture or a little less and carefully purée this. watch out because it will fly out of the blender if you are not careful. you might want to do small amounts or start of on a slow setting and work up to purée.

be careful as it is hot. return this to the soup pot and stir. add more butter, salt & pepper if desired. i also add a tsp of sugar.

enjoy!