Cream of Portobello Mushroom Soup

Creamy Portobello Mushroom Soup

I first cooked this soup for my friend w who came to visit my place. W is a vegaquarian meaning he only eats vegetables and seafood (something I aspire to become one day) so I was flipping through my cookbooks the night before, looking for a meatless soup recipe. Finally found a recipe for “wild mushroom soup with sage” in the cookbook 500 Soups which I thought looked really delicious. We had this soup together with grilled scallops & large tiger prawns on angel hair pasta (recipe coming up) and Bakerzin blueberry cheesecake (which is 50% off this month). I tweaked the soup recipe based on the ingredients we can find in Singapore (for example, portobello mushrooms instead of wild mushrooms, thickened cream instead of double cream). I’ve always like portobello mushrooms for their deep, earthy flavours and “meaty” texture. The result of the soup is really good. I love the deep flavours of the portobello mushrooms which goes well with the subtle aroma of the white wine. The mushroom bits and cream give the soup a velvety and nice texture. The minute we reached home after sending w back, B asked for the soup again and finished the rest of the pot. Happy is a cook when there are no leftovers ;)

Meatless Deliciousness – Cream of Portobello Mushroom Soup served with Basil Macadamia Pesto on Toast

The soup is creamy and slightly chunky so it is filling on its own. When I re-cooked this, we had it as a meal on its own, served with some basil macadamia pesto (pictured – recipe coming up) on toast. Yummy yummy.

Ingredients
(Serves 4 – 6)

- 25g butter
- 3/4 large white/yellow onion, chopped finely
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 850ml vegetable/chicken/mushroom stock (see cooking note 1)
- 650g portobello mushrooms, chopped to large chunks
- 5 fresh sage leaves, chopped finely
- 100ml white wine
- 100ml double cream/thickened cream (see cooking note 2)
- sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- chopped fresh parsley (for garnishing)

Directions
1. Melt butter in large and deep saucepan. And the onions and garlic, and cook over gentle flame till the onions have just started to caramelised (soft, translucent, shrunken). This takes about 4 minutes.
2. Stir in the flour and cook for one minute more, then gradually stir in the stock.
3. Add the mushrooms and bring to the boil. Don’t worry if it seems like a lot of mushrooms, they will shrink considerably when they are cooked.
4. Reduce heat, cover and simmer gently for about 15 minutes, until the mushrooms are tender. Stir in the sage.
5. Remove a couple of ladlefuls of the mushrooms, chop them to small pieces and set aside.
6. Process the remaining soup in a food processor or blender until smooth.
7. Return the soup to the saucepan and stir in the wine & cream and season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Warm through, without boiling. Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped mushrooms you reserved in step 5, parsley and a few drops (or swirls) of cream. Serve with toast.

Cooking Notes:
1) I used “Woh Hup” brand of “Concentrated Mushroom Stock” for the stock base by dissolving 1 tsp of stock for every 200ml of water. This stock works really well for this soup and is very convenient.
2) The original recipe calls for double cream, which is something common in UK. However, double cream is quite rare in Singapore (so far, only seen it at Cold Storage Centrepoint) and pretty expensive. I substituted this with thickened cream containing 35% milk fat and it does the job well and is so much cheaper and easier to find at our local supermarkets.
3) Ingredients substitution: You can substitute portobello mushrooms with wild mushrooms. You can also substitute the sage with fresh thyme (1 tsp).

Love my soup bowl? I adore the beautiful, punchi blue colour ;) Bought for S$2 at Daiso Singapore.

Ingredients Used cream • garlic • mushroom • onion • sage