Best Mushroom Cream Soup - Video Recipe

Fungus shouldn't taste this good. Cream and caramelized mushroom blend together perfectly. My rich and earthy Mushroom Cream Soup is meant to be shared on a cold wintry day.

I often find four ounce packages of brown crimini and portabella, along with regular white button mushrooms, at my local 99c only Stores, here in Los Angeles. Sorry to rub it in, but mushrooms are expensive, except in my Cheap$kate Chateau.

Click on any photo to see larger.

The rest of the ingredients are cheap enough. I saute onion along with the  mushrooms, and sweeten the soup with white wine and rich cream.

You can keep this recipe vegan by substituting cream with almond, cashue or soy milk. I'm not up on all the milk alternatives, so use what you like.

I add a couple cups of water to the soup, but you can use a favorite broth for an extra flavorful soup.

Can you keep it low calorie and leave out the rich cream? Heck yeah, it's just as tasty without cream.

But if you are feeling extravagant, and making this for a special occasion, like trying to impress, then go all the way...with extra cream!

Mushroom Cream Soup - VIDEO

Play it here, video runs 3 minute 10 seconds

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients (about 4-6 servings)
3 packages of mushrooms - I got 4 to 5 ounce packages of each: crimini, white button and portabella mushroom. Okay to use one type of mushroom, or any you can find on sale.
1 onion chopped - I used a cheap yellow onion.
1 cup white wine - optional. If you leave it out then just use broth or water instead.
1 cup heavy cream - okay to keep soup light and use low fat milk or a milk substitute. Even okay to leave out cream altogether.
2 cups water - or a favorite broth.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil - to saute onion and mushrooms.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions
Please note that I cooked this soup recipe in a large pot. If you use a standard smaller pot then cooking time for mushrooms may take longer than 5 minutes, more like 10 minutes. Mainly, just cook veggies until soft.

Chop one whole onion. Saute in pot with tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Cook and stir onions until soft, about 5 minutes.

Clean mushrooms if needed. (Wipe off dirt with a soft brush or napkin.)

For crimini or white button mushroom roughly slice. Okay to use pre-sliced mushrooms.

For larger portabella mushrooms whipe off any dirt. Once the portabella mushrooms are cleaned, slice them up. Doesn't matter how small the pieces, as they will end up in a blender or food processor.

Once onions are softened stir in the mushrooms. Cook them another 5 minutes until mushroom pieces are soft. May take longer to soften if you use a small pot - the more pan surface area the quicker everything cooks through.

Salt and pepper to taste any time during sauteing.

Mushrooms and onions will reduce in size considerably. Again if you use a small pot the mushroom may take 10 minutes to soften.

Pour in about a cup or white wine. 

Finally add 2 cups of water or a favorite broth. Mix liquid well. Bring soup up to a low simmer and cover the pot.

Simmer for about 15 minutes. You just want to finish cooking the mushrooms and onions until extra soft.

Now you are ready to finish up the Mushroom Cream Soup. Allow the soup to cool down so you can add it to a blender or food processor. Blending with hot liquid is asking for trouble. Let the soup cool down for at least 5 minutes.

Add soup to a blender and pulse/blend until smooth. It goes pretty quickly. I blended all my soup in about a minute. Okay to work in batches. I blended my soup in two batches.

Finally add blended soup to a pot. Stir in a cup of almond milk, whipping cream, or half and half. Okay to keep the soup light and add regular or low fat milk. You can use any favorite vegan milk substitute, since now all you are doing is a final soup warming up.

For an extra low calorie, and vegan, soup it's okay to leave out cream altogether.

Heat Mushroom Cream Soup until hot, about 15 minutes - that's it. I sometimes like to simmer the soup on low for half an hour or so, just to marry and deepen the flavors of onion and mushroom -- you know how it goes, soup and stew just get better over time. Add more liquid if necessary for any prolonged cooking.

Mushroom Cream Soup - Vegan Recipe Video

Fungus shouldn't taste this good. Almond milk and caramelized mushroom blend together perfectly. My rich and earthy Mushroom Cream Soup is meant to be shared on a cold wintry day.

I often find four ounce packages of brown crimini and portabella, along with regular white button mushrooms, at my local 99c only Stores, here in Los Angeles. Sorry to rub it in, but mushrooms are expensive, except in my Cheap$kate Chateau.

Click on any photo to see larger.

The rest of the ingredients are cheap enough. I saute onion along with the  mushrooms, and sweeten the soup with white wine and almond milk.

You can keep this recipe vegan by substituting cream with almond, cashew or soy milk. I'm not up on all the milk alternatives, so use what you like. 

I add a couple cups of water to the soup, but you can use a favorite broth for extra flavorful soup.

Can you keep it low calorie and leave out the rich cream? Hell yeah, it's just as tasty without cream. For my real Cream Mushroom Soup Recipe click here.

But if you are feeling extravagant, and making this for a special occasion, like trying to impress a date, then go all the way...with extra cream!

Mushroom Cream Soup - VIDEO 

Play it here, video runs 3 minutes 14 seconds

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients (about 4-6 servings)
3 packages of mushrooms - I got 4 to 5-ounce packages of each: crimini, white button and portabella mushroom. Okay to use one type of mushroom or any you can find on sale.
1 onion chopped - I used a cheap yellow onion. If you don't like onion then leave it out.
1 cup white wine - optional. If you leave it out then just use broth or water instead.
2 cup almond milk - use any favorite milk substitute.
1 cup water - or a favorite vegetable broth.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil - to saute onion and mushrooms.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions
Please note that I cooked this soup recipe in a large pot. If you use a standard smaller pot then cooking time for mushrooms may take longer than 5 minutes, more like 10 minutes. Mainly, just cook veggies until soft.

Chop one whole onion. Saute in pot with tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Cook and stir onions until soft, about 5-10 minutes. You want onions to caramelize just a little to sweeten and lose that raw onion texture and flavor.

Clean mushrooms if needed. (Wipe off dirt with a soft brush or napkin.)

For crimini or white button mushroom roughly slice. Okay to use pre-sliced mushrooms.

For larger portabella mushrooms whip off any dirt. Once the portabella mushrooms are cleaned, slice them up. Doesn't matter how small the pieces, as they will end up in a blender or food processor.

Once onions are softened stir in the mushrooms. Cook them another 5 minutes until mushroom pieces are soft. May take longer to soften if you use a small pot - the more pan surface area the quicker everything cooks through.

Salt and pepper to taste any time during sauteing.

Mushrooms and onions will reduce in size considerably. Again if you use a small pot the mushroom may take 10 minutes to soften.

Pour in about a cup or white wine. 

Finally, add 1 cup of water or a favorite broth. Mix liquid well. Bring soup up to a low simmer and cover the pot.

Simmer for about 15 minutes. You just want to finish cooking the mushrooms and onions until extra soft.

Now you are ready to finish up the Mushroom Cream Soup. Allow the soup to cool down, so you can add it to a blender or food processor. Blending with too hot liquid is asking for trouble. Let the soup cool down for at least 5-10 minutes.

Add soup to a blender and pulse/blend until smooth. It goes pretty quickly. I blended all my soup in about a minute. Okay to work in batches. I blended my soup in two batches.

Lastly, add blended soup to a pot. Stir in 2 cups of almond milk. You can use any favorite vegan milk substitute, since now all you are doing is a final soup warming up.

Heat Mushroom Cream Soup until hot, about 5 minutes - that's it.

Mashed Potatoes - Video Recipe

Potatoes deep fried, boiled or baked, the end result is always deeply satisfying. It's also one of the most complete nutritional veggies -- it's what the stranded astronaut survived on, in the book and movie, The Martian. Are potatoes the cheapest veggie out there? I often get them on sale, a buck for 10 pounds.

The spud originated in the South American country of Peru, were hundreds of varieties are available, but for my next cheap$kate recipe I use Idaho's finest, the russet potato. They are ideal for boiling into Mashed Potatoes. Russets stay dry enough when taking on water during slow simmering. You can also use red or white potatoes for this recipe - you may need less milk or cream to finish.

Everyone knows how to make Mashed Potatoes, right? Well, just in case you are a newbie here's one way to do them cheaply and easily.

Mashed Potatoes on their own are a bit bland. I usually make them for Thanksgiving and Christmas, when there is gravy and dressing to mix with. Or, lately it is the topping for my British-style Shepherd's Pie that's baked with a beef stew underneath. And any type of gravy are what Mashed Potatoes crave.

Shepherd's Pie

The ingredients are few for Mashed Potatoes, just boiled tubers, milk, butter, salt and pepper. And they all come cheaply. Butter is the most expensive ingredient, but I barely use half a stick.

I always get several pounds of russet potatoes for less than a buck. They keep for a couple of months if you store them cool, dry, and out of direct sunlight. And the price is right, my recipe calls for about a bucks worth of russet potatoes.

You can use any fat content of milk, or go all out and mix in cream.

Some cooks peel the potatoes first, but I find it's easiest to boil them so the potato skin slides off easy and you don't waste any of the flesh, which happens with a potato peeler.

I have a potato masher, but have used a regular fork - just make sure the fork's sturdy, it can bend during potato mashing. It really depends on you how fine to mash. I like to leave in smaller lumps, so I don't go overboard. Be careful if you use an electric mixer because you can whip them until they become a gooey, sticky mess. Just taste as you go -- which applies to any recipe you make.

Next time you roast a chicken, save some pan juices to make gravy (for recipes, click here, or here) and be sure to mash some potatoes to sop it up.

Mashed Potatoes - Video

   Play it here. Video runs 1 minutes, 37 seconds.

 My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients (2-3 servings)

• 4-6 medium-size potatoes - about 3 pounds. At least 2 cups total when mashed. I used russet, but okay to use any type you like, even sweet potato.
• 1/2 cup of milk or cream - Add more or less milk to suit your taste and mashed potato texture. Okay to use half and half or whipping cream. Using a milk substitute is fine.
• 2 tablespoons butter - okay to add more or less. Okay to use butter substitute
• Salt and pepper to taste. 

Directions
Clean dirt off potatoes. I boil potatoes with skin on, some cooks like to peel the potatoes first - it's up to you.

 Add enough water to cover potatoes. High heat until water begins to boil. reduce heat to a low boil.

Should take about 1 hour, depending how large they are. Done when a fork easily pierces the potato. (To lessen boiling time you can cut potatoes into large cubes and boil them - should only take half an hour at the most.)

Cool off potatoes with cold water and peel them.

Add the peeled potatoes to a large bowl and add 1/2 cup of milk and 2 tablespoons of butter. Okay to use milk or butter substitute.

Season with salt and pepper. Mash it all together. You should get about 2 cups of mashed potatoes.

 

Creamy Mushrooms & Pasta

I had a half a tub of sour cream taking up space in the refrigerator, left over from another recipe. Well the easiest way to use it up is by making Creamy Mushrooms & Pasta.

I like entrees that only use a few ingredients. And my latest cheap$kate recipe uses: pasta, sour cream and mushrooms.

If you have a little dried parmesan then finish off the dish with a sprinkle or two. I also have a basil plant, so why not add some fresh fragrant herbs. This recipe can be changed around to use what you have on hand.

I thought the sour cream sauce would be too sour - not really. Once you add tender mushrooms and a mound of pasta, it soothes the sourness quite a bit. Not quite as sweet as cooking with cream, but in the neighborhood. It still has a luscious flavor I think you will enjoy.

I get sour cream cheaply from my local 99c only Store.

I always find mushrooms there too, like brown (crimini) and white button.

Pasta is cheap almost anywhere you buy it. I used spaghetti for this recipe, but you can use any budget pasta you like.

This recipe makes 2 servings, but it's easy enough to double the ingredient amounts to make plenty for later, or for more guests.

It comes together in the time it takes to cook a pot of pasta, so you can easily make it after a long day at the office; or a day of schooling; or even between taking care of the kids. So do try out my latest cheap$kate entree, Creamy Mushrooms & Pasta.

Ingredients (about 2 servings)

• 8 ounces of sour cream - I used half a carton of sour cream, about 1 cup. Okay to use a vegan substitute.
• 4 ounces of mushrooms - I used a small package of crimini, but okay to use regular white button or any mushrooms.
• 8 ounces of pasta - any favorite. I used half a package of spaghetti.
• 1 tablespoon of oil - for sauteing mushrooms
• Extras include: parmesan cheese and fresh or dried herbs.

Directions
This recipe comes together in the time it takes to boil some pasta. Start cooking the pasta following package directions. I usually shave off a minute or two for al dente (pasta that is slightly firm to the bite.) While pasta cooks prepare the Creamy Mushroom Sauce.

Add tablespoon of oil to a pan large enough to hold the cooked pasta. If you don't have a large pan then it's okay to use what you got and mix the spaghetti in a bowl, or even the drained pot you cooked the pasta in.

While oil heats up over a medium temperature, brush off any dirt from the mushrooms, if needed. Slice the mushrooms, thick or thin.

Add sliced mushrooms to oiled frying pan. Saute until soft, about 3-5 minutes.

Next add the sour cream. I sprinkled on 2 tablespoons of dried parmesan, for extra flavor (optional.) Mix sour cream and mushrooms.

 

Sour cream will turn into a creamy sauce as it heats up. Stir slowly and cook for a couple of minutes.

If the sauce thickens too much (or there is not enough for you,) then add a couple of tablespoons pasta water.

Finally add drained cooked pasta to Creamy Mushroom Sauce. Mix pasta into the sauce and sprinkle on a pinch or two of fresh herbs (again optional.)

Hindsight
This recipe is easy to double the ingredients. Just make it with 16 ounces of sour cream and 2 packages of mushrooms. Also cook a whole package of pasta.

If mushrooms are too expensive then substitute any favorite sliced or chopped fresh veggies to saute, like: carrots, cauliflower, broccoli or Italian squash.