Creamy Mushroom Soup
This mushroom soup has barely any cream in it, yet is completely creamy and thick, rich and delicious. The mushrooms are tossed with garlic and thyme infused olive oil and roasted, and then added to a soup base of chicken broth and caramelized onions. Packed full of flavor and a real crowd pleaser! Recipe adapted from Damn Delicious.
My husband hates mushrooms. He isn’t a picky eater but those are one of the few things he won’t eat. This makes me sad because, I LOVE mushrooms. But you’ll notice, there aren’t any mushroom recipes on this blog because I aim to please with my cooking. This time though, I was selfish. And I loved it.
Roasting the mushrooms
Typically, mushroom soup starts with mushrooms being sauteed on the stove top. There’s nothing wrong with that, but roasting the mushrooms is a game changer. It really immerses the mushrooms with the flavor of the garlic and thyme, and gives the perfect earthy seasoned base to the soup. It’s super easy to do- just toss the mushrooms with some olive oil that has some minced garlic and thyme sprigs mixed in and roast in a hot oven for 20-30 minutes.
The onions:
Caramelizing the onions will take quite a bit of time. Think 12-15 minutes of occasional stirring. But you don’t need me to tell you how good caramelized onions are and that the subtle sweetness they add to the soup are totally worth the time spent.
The soup base:
You have chicken stock (which you could sub for vegetable stock for an all vegetarian soup), bay leaves and thyme for flavor, and some salt, pepper and nutmeg. That’s it! I find that nutmeg goes really well with creamy sauces, but you are free to use any mixture of herbs that you like.
Storing the soup:
You can store leftover soup for 2 days in the fridge. Freezing after adding the cream isn’t a good idea since this will cause the cream to separate. If you do want make it with the purpose of freezing it, freeze it before adding the cream in the final step, and add the cream once you thaw and reheat it.
I want to say this is the recipe that can convert even mushroom haters, but my husband refused to even try it. Oh well, more for me! Find the recipe below and let me know any thoughts or questions in the comment section!
Creamy Roasted Mushroom Soup
Ingredients
- 800 g brown mushrooms (cremini or other)
- 4-5 tablespoon olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 fresh thyme sprigs
- salt and pepper, to taste
- pinch of nutmeg (optional)
- 3 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup water
- 5 cups chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 C (400F). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place mushrooms in a single layer on the baking sheet.
- In a small bowl, stir together the olive oil, half of the minced garlic, 4 sprigs of thyme, and some salt and pepper. Drizzle this mixture onto the mushrooms and toss to combine.
- Roast in the hot oven for 20-30 minutes or until browned and tender, stirring midway through. Let mushrooms cool, then chop coarsely.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and add the diced onion. Cook for 12-15 minutes, stirring until onion is golden and caramelized. Add the remaining garlic and cook for 1 additional minute.
- Whisk in the flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Stir in water.
- Add the chicken stock, bay leaves, and the rest of the thyme. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for 15 minutes until slightly reduced.
- Stir in the mushrooms and simmer for another 10 minutes until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the heavy cream.
- You can either leave the soup chunk, or use an immersion blender and puree to desired consistency.
Haya says
Can we replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock to make it vegetarian?
Farah Abumaizar says
Absolutely! In fact I’ll make a note of that in the ingredients 🙂
raida says
looks yummy….proof is in the taste…invite us over Farah 🙂
Mom
Farah Abumaizar says
Anytime! With open arms ❤️