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.

Vegetarian Mushroom Soup

Pungent and earthy, my first cheap$kate recipe of the year, Vegetarian Mushroom Soup, will likely be added to my Top 9 Recipes of 2014, it's that good!

There's not much to it really, just a whole chopped onion and some garlic, in a vegetable broth with some sauteed mushrooms. And it doesn't take that long to cook; the whole recipe can be made in about an hour.

I used 3 types of fresh mushrooms: portabella, crimini, and regular white button. You can use dried mushrooms, too. If you don't have access to a variety of mushroom then just use easy-to-find white button mushrooms. I get my mushrooms in 5 ounce packages from my local 99c only Stores. And sometimes all three types are all stocked at once.

To keep this recipe vegetarian I used veggie stock, but you can use any type you like and find on sale. You need about 5 cups of liquid for the recipe. I used a can of stock (about 2 cups) plus 3 cups of water. I'm too cheap to use all stock, so I added water, but you can use more stock if you are flush with cash. (I found that sauteing mushrooms releases an intense flavor that supplements any amount of water you might add.)

If you liked my French Onion Soup from a few years back (click here,) then you must try out my future Top 9 Recipe, Vegetarian Mushroom Soup. Especially comforting on a cold winter's night.

Ingredients

• 3 small packages of mushrooms - I used 5 ounce packages of: white button, portabella, and brown crimini. Okay to use one type of mushroom or any combination. For dry mushrooms: bring a small pot of water to a boil, turn off, and soak mushrooms for 30 minutes.
• 14.5 ounces vegetable broth - or any favorite broth. Or 2 bouillon cubes (in 5 cup of water total.) I used a 14.5 ounce can of vegetable stock (about 2 cups).
• 1 onion - white or yellow, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic - fresh or from jar.
• 3 cups of water - or more broth.
• 1/2 cup of wine - optional, I used white wine.
• 1 teaspoon favorite herbs - optional. Fresh or dried. I used fresh sage and oregano.
• 1 tablespoon oil
• Salt and pepper to taste. Depending on the type of broth you use, the soup may not need any salt - taste broth first before adding salt.

Directions
Chop one whole onion. Saute in pot with tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Cook and stir onions until soft and starting to caramelize, about 5-10 minutes.

Mince a tablespoon of garlic, okay to use chopped garlic from a jar. Add to onions and cook another minute.

Clean mushrooms if needed. (Wipe off dirt with a soft brush or dishrag.) For small button mushroom slice in half - I like about a quarter inch thickness. Pre-cut mushroom are a bit thin, but still okay.

For larger portabella mushroom twist out stems and set aside; you will slice those up to use in soup. Hold mushroom cap with black inside "gills" facing you. Take a spoon and lightly scrape out the black gills and discard. Gently cupping the mushroom cap in your hand will keep it from breaking apart as you remove the gills. Sometimes the cap will break anyway, but that's okay as you will be slicing it up.

You can leave the gills on if you like, it's just my preference to remove them.

Once the portabella mushrooms are cleaned, then slice them up, again I like thick slices. For variety, I slice the caps into long strips, since the button mushrooms are small enough.

Once onions are cooked and starting to caramelize stir in the mushrooms. Cook them another 5 minutes until soft. Carefully stir them, as the larger portabella slices are easy to break. I may look like a lot of mushrooms but they quickly shrink.

Finally add broth (about 2 cups) and 3 cups of water (or more broth.) Add white wine, optional.

Stir ingredients to mix and add salt and pepper to taste. You may need less salt if you use bouillon cubes or if the broth is salty. Taste soup as you season it.

Now, you are cooking the soup uncovered to reduce it. This will intensify the mushroom broth. Low simmer about 30-45 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced by a third. Stir occasionally. Should the soup reduce too much, then add a little broth or water, and heat through.

Hindsight
You can add less onion, any amount really. Same with garlic.

I left the mushroom slices large, but you could cut them in smaller pieces or thinner slices.

For extra lusciousness stir in a cup of cream, or add a dollop of sour cream before serving. And heat soup back up.