Cream of mushroom soup is another very popular soup that we get to see in the restaurants. In North America however, it is more popular as canned condensed soup. Making it at home is a breeze if you have the ingredients ready and is guilt-free and nutritious than the canned stuff.
There are umpteen versions of this soup, but I tend to stick to the same basic ingredients and method in making soups so that it is easy to remember. A few ingredients more or less will be the only difference.
So here, as usual, I am starting with butter, bay leaf, green chilly, onion, and garlic. Along with this, I have added a piece of cinnamon and a clove as these give a nice flavor when combined with mushrooms. A pinch of nutmeg is also added later to enhance the flavor.
Any variety of mushrooms or a combination of different varieties can be used. I have used button mushrooms as that was what I had on hand. Dried mushrooms can also be used after rehydrating them in hot water. The leftover water will serve as stock for the soup and this will make it more flavorful.
Basically, a roux is made and is thinned with hot milk to give that creamy texture. I have used wheat flour, but you can replace it with white flour or even powdered oats. Also, I prefer to blend half of the mushrooms as this greatly enhances the flavor of the soup.
Ensure that you remove the bay leaf, cinnamon, and clove before blending as they can overpower the flavor. The chilly can be discarded or blended as per preference.
However, it may be a bit difficult to locate and remove the cinnamon and clove. To avoid this you can crush them lightly, tie them up in a muslin cloth with the slit green chilly and torn bay leaf.
This can be added to the soup while sauteeing and removed finally before turning off the stove. Or you can add a pinch of cinnamon and clove powder too if that is available.
Adjust the consistency of the soup by adding more or less water. The water can be replaced by chicken stock, vegetable stock or any broth of your choice.
Any fresh herb on hand can be used for garnishing, though parsley and thyme go very well with mushroom soup. If you do not have fresh herbs you can use dried ones too. Add around 1/2 tsp of the dried herbs and saute them along with the mushrooms. Dot with fresh cream before serving.
I served it along with homemade white bread and it was so yum. Over to the recipe…
Cream of mushroom soup
Ingredients
- 125 g Button mushrooms
- 1 med sized onion/ ½ of a big onion(75 g)
- 2 cloves garlic (7g)
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp wheat flour
- 1 cup hot milk
- 1 cup water
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 clove (optional)
- 1 green chilly
- 1" cinnamon(optional)
- ¼ tsp Sugar
- A pinch of nutmeg
- Pepper as needed
- Salt as needed
- Parsley for garnish
- Fresh Cream(optional)
Instructions
- Get the ingredients ready. Chop the Onions, garlic, and mushrooms into thin longitudinal strips. Slit the green chilly in the middle.
- In a pan heat up the butter. When it melts add the bay leaf, cinnamon, and clove, followed by onion, garlic and chilly.
- Once the raw smell disappears and the onion becomes translucent, add the mushrooms. Saute for a minute and cover and cook for about 3 minutes. The mushrooms would be cooked and shrunk in size.
- Now reduce the flame and add the wheat flour. Mix well and saute for a few seconds. At this point, you can add ½ tbsp. more of butter if it seems to stick to the pan.
- Remove pan from heat and add the hot milk to it. Stir constantly to ensure no lumps are formed.
- Put it back on the stove and keep stirring on low medium flame till it becomes creamy.
- Turn off the stove and allow it to cool. Discard the bay leaf, cinnamon, clove and green chilly. Reserve half of the contents and blend the other half in a mixer or a hand blender.
- Return it back to the pot, add the reserved contents, salt, sugar, nutmeg, and pepper powder. Add more water (I added 1.5 cups) to adjust consistency and heat up again.
- Switch off when it just begins to boil. Garnish with parsley and fresh cream(optional)
Hema’s P.S
- Mushroom soup is supposed to be thick and creamy. If you want it thin reduce the amount of flour to ½ tbsp or add more water/stock.
- The bay leaf, cinnamon, clove and chilly are added only for flavor. So remove them before blending. You can leave the chilly if you are looking for a spicy soup.
- Cinnamon and clove can be omitted if you do not prefer to add them.
- I did not use cream this time.
Do look up my other soup recipes
