Mushroom Soup – One Recipe, 3 Ways to Make It Yours!

• 4 tbsp butter (or oil if you must)
• 2 lbs mushrooms, sliced
• pinch of kosher salt
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• ¼ cup white wine, optional
• 2 tbsp flour
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock, or in part water,) plus more as needed (see note)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp miso paste
• ⅓ cup coffee cream
• Garnishes, optional, such as a few fried mushrooms, fresh thyme sprigs, etc.

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the butter in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms with a pinch of salt (I prefer kosher salt here). I often divide the mushrooms between a Dutch oven and a large frying pan to speed up the process.

2. 2

   Cook the mushrooms until they release their liquid; once the liquid releases, it will start to evaporate. Once evaporated, the mushrooms will start to brown. Cook until the mushrooms are a nice golden brown.

3. 3

   When you are happy with the level of caramelization on your mushrooms, add your onions and cook them, stirring occasionally, for only about 3 minutes or so, until soft and translucent, but not brown. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes or so, stirring constantly, to cook off the raw flour taste; do not brown the flour. Add the garlic and cook for only 10–30 seconds until aromatic but not brown. If using wine, add it at this time and take care to scrape up the flavourful bits of fond on the bottom of the pan. Cook for a minute or two until almost completely evaporated.

4. 4

   Add your stock very slowly while stirring and immediately turn the heat to high. Add the milk. Add the dried thyme and bay leaves. Add the soy sauce and miso paste. You do not want to season the soup at this point with salt and pepper, as it may result in it being over-seasoned. After the liquid is brought to a boil, turn down the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.

5. 5

   Allow the soup to gently simmer uncovered for 30–45 minutes, and up to an hour if desired. If the soup ends up reducing too much, remember, it can always be fixed by adding more liquid.

6. 6

   You can leave your soup as is (proceed to the next step if that's the case), or puree all or part of it. Remove the bay leaves. Use a handheld immersion blender or transfer the desired amount of your soup (¼–½ batch of your soup for half-pureed soup or all of it for perfectly smooth and creamy consistency) to the blender; this may need to be done in batches. Puree until smooth. Return it to the pot.

7. 7

   Cream may be omitted entirely, but I prefer adding a very small splash of cream at this point and cooking until heated through. Taste your soup and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add more stock (or even water) to thin the soup out and get to your desired consistency, if needed. You can garnish your soup with sprigs of fresh thyme, pan-seared mushrooms, or lemons. Enjoy!