As winter starts setting in, warm up with a bowl of homemade cream of mushroom soup.
I loved cream of mushroom soup as a child. The mushrooms, though few, were always little treasures to fish out of the bowl with my spoon. I liked the the less broken down, less stirred bits of the condensed soup from a can on my saltine cracker.
Here’s a recipe that combines 3 varieties of mushrooms, which you can always change up. I prefer to blend about 1/2 of the sautéd mushroom portion to build up that creamy mushroom base and enjoy the remaining mushroom slices for a textured soup.
The roasted apple and sherry give the flavor richness and depth with just a touch of sweetness, for a complete, satisfying meal.
Forest Mushroom Soup | Erica Robbin
Warm up with a bowl of homemade cream of mushroom soup!
Use any variety of mushroom combination you like.
Credit: ericarobbin.com
Forest Mushroom Soup
- Drizzle olive oil
- 1/2 an apple, any variety, rough chunks
- 1/2 small onion, cut into quarters, with one of the quarters finely diced
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 cup fresh mushrooms, champignon, button, or cremini, sliced
- 1/4 cup sherry
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 3-4 sprigs fresh tarragon
- 4 cups chicken bone broth
- Salt and pepper to taste, I tend to season in stages
- 1/4 cup dried oyster mushrooms
- 1/4 cup dried wood ear mushrooms
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, reserve some for drizzle garnish
Forest Mushroom Soup
- Roast apple chunks and quarter onion, drizzled with olive oil in oven at 400F degrees (218 C) until tender, 10 min.
- Let cool and set aside.
- Meanwhile, over medium high heat, melt butter and sauté remaining diced onion until just browned.
- Add garlic and cook until just getting golden.
- Add 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms, sauté until just golden and glossy.
- Can add a bit of salt and pepper at this point.
- Add sherry, let bubble about 1 minute.
- Add flour, stirring throughly to get the brown bits up and dissolve the flour.
- Reduce heat to medium low and let sauce reduce.
- Meanwhile blend roasted apple and onion along with about 1/2 cup chicken and about 1/2 of sautéd mushrooms until smooth.
- Combine blended mushroom mix into sautéd mushrooms mixture, along with remaining chicken broth, dried mushrooms, and sprigs of tarragon.
- Cook over medium heat for about 8-10 minutes, until dried mushrooms become softened.
- Add cream and heat through, adding additional salt and pepper to taste.
- Garnish with heavy cream drizzle.
