I had a friend call me this afternoon asking for my pico de gallo recipe, and we were talking about what to do for dinner. She was making a butternut or pumpkin squash soup with a pico de gallo garnish on top. I told her I had all these mushrooms and I wasn't in the mood to make a Chinese stir-fry with them. She encouraged me to make Forest Mushroom Soup with what I had. She gave me her recipe, and it was so simple. Her recipe comes from Williams Sonoma and I adapted it for my needs. In my opinion you need at least 4 kinds of mushrooms, and make it a combo of dried and fresh. I used Button, Baby Bella, Shitake, and dried Morel mushrooms. Soak your dried mushrooms by pouring boiling water over them and letting them steep for 30 minutes. This is enough to hydrate them and make a rich mushroom broth that you can use in the soup. Just be sure to line your strainer with several layers of cheese cloth, or use a coffee filter, to filter out any grit left from the mushrooms. And the recipe called for dry sherry, but I used something in between a dry and a sweet, drinking sherry, and I was very pleased with the results. This soup left me speechless. Yah, it was that good.
Forest Mushroom Soup
2 T. each Earth Balance Margarine and EVOO
3-4 kinds of mushrooms to equal 1 1/2 lbs. sliced
1 onion small diced
2 cloves garlic minced
Salt & Pepper to your liking (I used 1/2 t. salt and 1/4 t. pepper)
3 T. flour (I used 2T. rice flour, 1T. arrowroot)
4 c. vegetable stock -You can use some of that mushroom soaking liquid for this, and you can use a bouillon cube or two if you don't have pre-made stock. (Example: I used 1/4 cup dried Morels in 1 cup of boiling water. Then I put 2 bouillon cubes in 3 cups of hot water to make my veg. broth. I use Rapunzel brand GF, vegan bouillon cubes This equaled the 4 cups I needed.)
1/2 c. Coconut milk coffee creamer like So Delicious brand, no flavors, just plain
1/4 c. Sherry wine
chopped fresh parsley
In your soup pot, heat the oil & margarine, and add the onion and sautee for 2 minutes. Then add the garlic and sautee for a minute more. Add the mushrooms and continue sauteeing for roughly 5 minutes or until cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in the sherry wine and stir till most of it is absorbed, and alcohol is evaporated out. Then I sprinkle on the flour & arrowroot. At this point I stir in the flour with a whisk till mushrooms are nicely coated and flour is mostly cooked (we're making a roux here). Whisk in the 4 cups of stock or broth. Stir occasionally for 15 to 20 minutes, to thicken the soup and further cook the mushrooms. Then I stir in the coconut milk cream till incorporated and turn off the heat. Adjust seasonings. You can add the chopped parsley now or add it on top of individual bowls for presentation.
This soup was euphoric. Have this with a chunk of baguette, or your favorite gluten free toast, or GF cracker. And I had a nice glass of oakey Chardonnay to go with it. I can't even describe how good this was.
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