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.

National Hamburger Day - Recipes

Bow down to the mighty Hamburger, for today is National Hamburger Day, and this cheap$kate has a platter of tasty ground protein between buns to share with you. Click on any recipe name below to see the complete recipe details.

First up is a Roasted Green Chile Pepper Burger. If you are from New Mexico then grilled chiles are a normal topping for burgers. Just throw a few chiles on the BBQ grill when you slap on a burger patty. When chiles are charred they are ready to eat. All you need to do is choose a chile your taste buds can handle because some are spicy and some are barely not.  

Vegetarians will line up at the grill for my Portabella Mushroom & Bell Pepper Cheeseburger. Cover all the bases with a thick meaty portabella mushroom grilling on one side of your BBQ grill, and a beef or bison ground patty on the other side. Make sure to use different grilling utensils and plates so your vegan friends won't get grossed out, right? You know the rules. And use a cheese substitute (or just forget the cheese) to make my burger totally vegan.

Forget about doing a time consuming veggie mix - might as well go the simplest route with a bun-size grilled portabella mushroom.

While we are on the subject, my sister Denise has a go-to veggie burger she makes with eggplant. Denise visited me in the cheap$kate cocina and showed me how she does it. I even got her to go shopping with me at my local 99c only Store for all the ingredients. Do check out Denise's Eggplant Veggie Burger video below.



Is a Sloppy Joe considered a burger? Well, it is ground meat reshaped into a meaty pasta-like sauce, that goes between 2 hamburger buns - so I vote it in. For my cheap$kate version I use ground poultry, but you can go with traditional ground beef. My video version is right here:

I always see 5 ounce cans of salmon at my local 99c only Store. With one can you can make a couple of Salmon Burgers - now that is a great deal. You can make this seafood burger your own by mixing in any grilled and chopped veggies you like. I use an egg to bind and hold it all together. And for extra credit I throw in a Ginger Mayo Aioli to top the Salmon Burger.

A Patty Melt is as close to a cheeseburger as you can get, without calling it one. What sets it apart is the addition of caramelized onions and using slices of bread, instead of hamburger buns. Melty American cheese and caramelized onion belong together. Watch how it all comes together in my video below.



We all have burgers on the brain during the summer months and I am happy to gift you some delish recipes to get your synapses of flavor firing.

Roasted Chicken with Portabella Mushrooms

Sometimes an entree is only skin deep, which suits my Roasted Chicken with Portabella Mushrooms just fine.

This earthy roast bird with mushrooms makes a delish dinner for the whole family, and if there is any leftover meat then shred it into a salad the next day.

And it couldn't be easier to make. Just slide thick sliced portabella mushrooms under the chicken skin, season the bird, and roast it until done.

While this cheap$kate recipe looks alien infected when it goes in the oven, the mushrooms cook down and the final presentation is a golden bird with brocade shapes of deep brown.

It's a tasty combination. Use my recipe as a leaping off point and substitute any type of mushrooms you find on sale, including plain white button mushrooms. The trick to to slice them thick, so they don't dry out while roasting.

Click on any photo to see larger.

For portabella mushrooms I like to scrape out the black powdery gills under the mushroom cap. Don't worry about getting it all out, though.

Mushrooms always show up at my local 99c only Stores and chicken is the cheapest protein -- so go hog wild with this recipe.

If leg quarters or whole chicken breast are on sale you can slide a few sliced mushrooms under the skin and bake them in an oven pan.

Moist mushrooms help keep breast meat from dying out, too. So next time you find fungi and poultry priced right, stock up and try my earthy Roasted Chicken with Portabella Mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken - okay to use leg quarters or chicken breasts.
• 2 portabella mushrooms - depending on size. Thickly slice mushrooms. Okay to use button mushrooms or any you find on sale.
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions
Rinse off whole chicken and allow to dry for a few minutes.

Brush off any dirt on mushrooms. Thickly slice mushrooms. For portabella mushrooms, I like to scrape out the black gills underneath the mushroom cap. It is easiest to use a spoon. Be careful as mushroom cap will break. It's okay to add any mushroom pieces to chicken.

The trickiest part of this recipe is to loosen the chicken skin. Wash your hands, then use your finger(s)and carefully slide them under the breast skin nearest the chicken cavity. Move the fingers left to right and press them forward to middle of the breast meat. If the chicken skin splits, that's okay. Hold it together and keep on loosening. Okay to use a wooden spoon or plastic spatula.

The breast skin is extra-attached along the middle of the breast bone, from neck to the cavity. You can separate it there, or just loosen skin on either side of breast. You can also enter the skin from the neck. I got about 4-5 slices on the breast meat.

The leg meat is a little trickier. You can work your finger in at the base of the breast meat. You only need to loosen enough to get get one or two mushroom slices on the leg meat. If you can work your finger all the way to the thigh meat then add some mushrooms there, too.

Once you've loosened chicken skin once, it gets easier next time, and you will want to keep baking chicken with other tasty ingredients just under the skin, like: lemon slices (or almost any fruit,) herbs and garlic.

Bake chicken in preheated 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. To keep breast extra moist, cover it with foil for first hour, then remove foil, and finish cooking chicken until done.

Slice into dark meat to check for doneness. Chicken juices should run clear and the meat should not have any red showing.