Cream of Mushroom Soup
It’s One-Pot Time
I complained all summer that we didn’t have a summer, and now fall is here and it feels like fall. Thank you, Mother Nature. The air has been generally cool and dry, and the days are getting shorter. It feels natural to cook one-pot meals and roast all the vegetables until my heart is content.
One of my latest cravings has been soup. Looking for something I hadn’t made before, I came across a cream of mushroom soup recipe in my One-Pot cookbook. I hadn’t had a craving for cream of mushroom soup before – my aversion of the soup in a can version that mum made lived strong – but this recipe by Jean-Pierre Challet had little cream. I dove in on chance, and it was delicious. Paired with roasted root vegetables, it was the perfect, simple feast to align with the season.
Here’s the recipe for you to try. I used a small red potato, slightly more than ¼ cup half and half, and green onions for garnish.
• 3½ oz chanterelle mushrooms
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, plus 1 Tbsp (optional)
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 1 fingerling potato, peeled and diced
• 7 oz button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 bouquet garni
• salt and pepper
• 1 leek, white part only, sliced
• ½ cup whipping cream or half and half
• finely chopped chives, garnish
Sauté the chanterelles in 1 Tbsp butter until tender. Remove from heat, reserving as a garnish for the soup.
In a saucepan, sauté the shallots in 1 Tbsp butter. Add the potato and button mushrooms; sauté for 1 minute. Add about 2 cups water, or enough to cover, and the bouquet garni. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer gently for 10 minutes (or until tender). Stir in the leek and half of the cream. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove the bouquet garni. Blend the soup until very smooth in a blender or with a hand blender. Add the rest of the cream, and if you like, blend in 1 Tbsp butter for extra richness and flavor.
Ladle the soup into bowls, placing a few chanterelles in the center. Sprinkle with chives and serve.
Nourish