Mushroom Soup with Thyme and Crème Fraîche
It is winter and this season calls for soup. For a while I wasn’t all too excited when it came to soup. Don’t get me wrong; I love
soup to the extent where I’ve been known to have 5L of frozen soup, neatly portioned out into resealable bags, in my freezer. It is hearty and warm and makes a wonderful weeknight-freezer-meal, the perfect remedy for a chilly winters evening. That said – it just wasn’t exciting anymore.
This year as autumn set in, I decided to do something about it. I decided to reinvent the tired soup. That is at least those that I love, some classics and new (to me) discoveries on my soup journey. Doing months of research, which if you’re a food blogger means “eating”, I discovered some fresh, modern soups – some are old favorites, elevated by adding as little as one miracle ingredient, changing up the flavor combination or simply by improving the way we treat and cook the ingredients.
Hence, welcome to my “Soup Repertoire 2.0”!
My tips for making extraordinary soups:
- You need to roast, char or brown ingredients first- this is where serious flavor develops! Use the oven with its grill on high or a scorching-hot griddle pan or skillet.
- Keep it bright, fresh and crunchy – I cannot stand those pressure cooker soups where everything is cooked to a mush. Resist the urge to overcook ingredients – the wholesomeness lies in the fresh, uncooked ingredient.
- Be inventive. Try new combinations of ingredients. Leave the spices and chop in fresh herbs instead.
- Use good quality stock/ broth whenever you need to add liquid to a soup. Water will dilute the flavor while poor quality stock will change the flavor that you have been working so hard to create.
- Ensure that you are using the best quality of seasonal ingredients, there really is no substitution for quality.
- Think about the texture. How would you like it to eat? You might want to serve a potato soup smooth and strained while the pleasure of a mushroom soup lies in its grainy texture.
This recipe is one of those fairly new discoveries. Yes, I knew mushroom soups but I never gave them much though. Lately, I’ve given this one a lot of though. Probably one of the most rich and luxurious soups, this one really packs a punch when it comes to flavor. With this soup, I think it is the celery that really makes the it sing. It seems to enhance the already earthy flavor of the mushrooms. I use a combination of brown -and Portabellini mushrooms but you can use either or any other variety. What I will say is that I found these mushrooms, as opposed to the the lighter, white button mushroom, to provide the most vibrant color.
With the intense mushroom flavor, you really do not need to serve a protein with it. I often serve it in small portions and it makes the perfect entrée. Because of its richness, I like to serve it with a Crème Fraîche Drizzle to create the perfect balance, as is the case with the spring onions. Of course, you can also use sour cream or plain Greek yoghurt.
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Mushroom Soup with Thyme and Crème Fraîche
Ingredients
- 750 g brown and/or portabellini mushrooms roughly chopped
- 4 tbsp butter
- 2 tsp olive oil
- ½ medium onion finely diced
- 2 stalks celery thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup white wine or sherry
- 4 cup vegetable/ chicken stock/ broth
- ½ cup cream
Crème Fraîche Drizzle
- ¼ cup Crème Fraîche
- ¼ cup cream
Instructions
- In a large casserole, heat 1 tbsp of the butter and 1 tsp olive oil over medium heat. Add a ¼ of the chopped mushrooms and ½ a teaspoon of thyme. Cook until dark and brown. Season with salt and remove from the casserole.
- Add the remaining butter and 1 tsp of olive oil. Over medium heat, cook the remaining mushrooms, celery, onion and garlic for 3-5 minutes or until the vegetables are soft and translucent. The mushrooms will give off quite a bit of liquid – this is perfectly fine and will form part of the vegetable stock later.
- Sprinkle over the flour and cook for another 3-5 minutes to ensure the flour is cooked. Do not be alarmed if the casserole becomes dry, reduce the heat and continue cooking the flour and mushrooms – this will help the mushrooms caramelize and develop flavor on the bottom of the casserole.
- Add the sherry or white wine to deglaze the casserole. This is the process whereby alcohol is used to lift flavor from the bottom of the casserole. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, gently scrape off the bits that are sticking to the bottom of the casserole – this is where all the flavor lies. Cook for 2 minutes until the alcohol has evaporated.
- Add the stock to the vegetables. You need enough to cover the vegetables. You can always add more later to adjust the consistency to taste; however, I think this is just the right amount of stock for a luxurious texture and consistency. Cover the casserole and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes by which time the stock should have thickened sufficiently. If you prefer a thicker soup, simmer for another 10 minutes, bearing in mind that the soup will thicken even more after pureeing.
- Use an emergent -or regular blender to pulverize the vegetables to a desired texture. When it comes to mushroom soup, I prefer one with some texture over a completely smooth one. Stir in ½ cup of cream.
- For the Crème Fraîche Drizzle: Wisk the remaining ¼ cup cream into the Crème Fraîche to a pouring consistency.
- Garnish with the browned mushrooms, chopped spring onion and Crème Fraîche Drizzle.
Notes
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