This seems to be more of a fall/winter recipe but it works for a light dinner with a salad and some bread just as well as a complement to a dinner of meat and potatoes. I adapted the recipe from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone to use what I had on hand. I love this book. It has a recipe for everything, interesting new ideas and they all work well with or without meat.
Cream of Mushroom Soup
serves 4 to 6
one small basket baby portabella or 1 lb. white button mushroooms
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves
4 thyme sprigs, leaves stripped from the stems, or 3 pinches dried
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tbs flour
1 quart homemade veggie stock or mushroom stock
1/2 to 1 cup cream
Coarsely chop the mushrooms.
Melt butter in a soup pot and add onion, garlic, thyme, 1 tsp salt, ad 1/4 cup water. Cover and stew over med heat for 5 minutes, then raise heat and add the chopped mushrooms, and cook for 4-5 minutes. Stir in the flour, add the stock, and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes. Puree the soup, return to the pot, and stir in the cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm over low heat.
Notes: I used only the mushrooms I received in our box, so there was not a pound of baby portabella mushrooms, but their flavor is very rich. The taste of the soup was very good but the consistency was on the thin side. I think for future I would use a total of a pound of mushrooms, some white and some porcini or baby portabella, to get the soup a bit more body.
