Good Food Friday: Homemade Mushroom Soup

There was a time, not to long ago, where I would never have thought to make any soup from scratch. If I wanted soup... I bought it in a can (or box). Why?!? Isn't that how everyone had soup? Making anything from scratch when it was already made for me just never entered my mind. Really. I would have considered the act of opening the can and reheating the soup "cooking". Maybe I would have been adventurous and added some fresh items to the soup. Like more mushrooms if I bought a can of mushroom soup. 

Typical "cooking" for me usually involved a meat, potato, and veggie (steamed) but that was as far as I would go. I didn't believe I could cook or really see a point to try. I felt like I ate a well rounded, fairly healthy diet. Not full of junk food. I had no idea that I could be healthier, eat better, and enjoy food more when I began to cook for real.

My point is that I did learned to cook and surprisingly I enjoy it. As I have expanded my ability, cooking from scratch continues to get easier. It took practice and a bit of work, a definite change in my thinking, but cooking doesn't have to be hard or time consuming. Don't think that I don't have a lot of work to do yet. I mean I have goals to replace all processed boxed foods in my pantry and cook entirely from ingredients from my yard or bought in bulk but one small step at a time. 

I wouldn't dream of buying good old canned mushroom soup now just for a bowl of it. I make it instead with ingredients that I almost always have on hand. All those who eat mushrooms in my house are a huge fan. Is it more work than opening a can of soup and heating up on the stove top? Yes, but not by much. In twenty minutes, you can be enjoying a steaming bowl of homemade mushroom soup.

Homemade Mushroom Soup

Ingredients: (serves 4)

• 8 oz package of mushrooms
• 1/4 cup butter
• 4 green onions (tonight I substituted a small yellow onion)
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced (I use more if the cloves are small)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground thyme (in the summer use fresh thyme to taste and lemon thyme is better)
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon corn starch (to thicken more but you could substitute more flour)
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Fresh herbs for garnish such as chives but not necessary

Directions:

• Chop up mushrooms, onions, and garlic (or mince it).
• Melt butter in a heavy bottom pot and cook the onions, garlic and thyme. Until onions soft and garlic "golden". Add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until mushrooms soften and their juices fill the pot about 3 to 4 minutes.
• Add 1 tablespoon of flour and stir for 1 minute.
• While mushrooms are cooking prepare broth. I usually use a bouillon for my broth so I have two cups of warm water with the necessary bouillon and one cup of room temp water in which I add a second tablespoon of flour stirred until dissolved. 
• After the mushrooms and flour have been combined and cooked for about a minute until thickened, add stock and flour water to pot and stir continuously. Bring to boil while stirring then reduce heat and simmer for about 2 minutes. Stir occasionally. 
• Add corn starch to heavy cream and dissolve. 
• Whisk the cream into the soup, keep heat low, and stir to combine. Don't boil your soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 
• Garnish as desired.

The chopping process.  The longest part of preparing the soup.

Onions, garlic, and mushrooms cooked and 1 tablespoon flour added.

Corn starch added to heavy cream.

Stock added to mushrooms and simmering for 2 minutes.

Cream added to soup with final seasoning. Soups done!

I am ready for another bowl! Enjoy.