Cream of Porcini Mushroom Soup

Name: Cream of Porcini Mushroom Soup Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Porcini (fresh or frozen) 200 g; Hot water about 4 cups (800 ml); Butter 1 tbsp; Heavy cream (30-33%) 0.5 cup (100 ml); Rye bread 100 g (2 slices); Wheat flour 1 heaping tbsp (15 g); Olive oil 1 tsp; Salt, black pepper to taste

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45 mins

A thick homemade cream of mushroom soup is one easy way to make a simple, light soup for lunch. In season, when porcini are being picked in quantity, you can make this soup from freshly picked mushroomsthat smell of the forest. In winter, especially in a good mushroom year, you can use frozen raw or pre-boiled mushrooms.

For a really aromatic cream of mushroom soup, it is better to use raw mushrooms, which keep their aroma remarkably well even frozen. Alongside the ordinary porcini soup simmering sautéed mushrooms with cream or crème fraîche gives an amazingly soft, delicate soup whose aftertaste lingers for a long time.

You can make this soup with many kinds of mushrooms. What matters is a flavorful, aromatic mushroom broth. At home in season we always make chanterelle soup in a pork or beef rib broth, which has become a tradition. Porcini we usually dry, or boil briefly and then freeze. All winter long you can make a quick appetizer of marinated porcini with garlic and green onionor, if you feel like it, an amazingly tasty mushroom pizza.

You can make a very tasty cream soup from fresh champignons, but it is unlikely to match the flavor and aroma of porcini. Still, I think it is worth adding a few dried porcini to cream of champignon soup for aroma. Then the soup will be fragrant, tasty and very appetizing.

Since mushrooms are very hard to turn into a puree, we make this soup from pieces sautéed in butter, then simmer them with flour. Once the soup is smooth, we add cream and seasoning.

Porcini are ideal for making “light” broths and soups. Many people believe the term “white” mushroom is very old and was once applied to any edible mushroom. Perhaps so, but note that porcini don’t darken when boiled and keep their wonderful original color. Even after frying, porcini leave a pleasant light shade in the broth.

More with porcini

Porcini Mushroom Soup

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Lenten Borscht with Mushrooms and Beans

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Mushroom Soup

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Scrambled Eggs with Porcini Mushrooms and Onion

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Kavarma with Pork and Porcini Mushrooms

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Ingredients

2 servings

Porcini (fresh or frozen) 200 g
Hot water about 4 cups (800 ml)
Butter 1 tbsp
Heavy cream (30-33%) 0.5 cup (100 ml)
Rye bread 100 g (2 slices)
Wheat flour 1 heaping tbsp (15 g)
Olive oil 1 tsp
Salt, black pepper to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the mushrooms and croutons

Prepare the mushrooms. Wash fresh porcini thoroughly to remove soil, pine needles and forest debris. If the mushrooms were frozen fresh, it is better not to thaw them, just leave them out of the fridge for 30-40 mins. They will lose their hardness and become about as dense as styrofoam, so they will cut very well.
Prepare in advance half a cup of natural heavy cream (100 ml) (30-33%), a piece of butter (1 tbsp) and two slices of rye breadbut not the very darkest kind. Croutons always go well with thick soups, such as pea souppotato soup with cracklings and so on.
Make the rye croutons. Cut the bread slices into 5-6 mm thick layers, trim off the outer crust and cut into cubes. Fry in a pan over medium heat in 1 tsp of olive oil until crisp. Don’t overdo the croutons. It is enough for the outside to be hard and crunchy while the middle stays soft like ordinary bread.

How to make cream of mushroom soup

You can make the soup right in a saucepan or deep skillet, without using a pot: all the water fits in them together with the mushrooms.
Fry the mushrooms. Melt the butter in a saucepan or deep skillet. Cut the mushrooms into small pieces, roughly as for a stew of mushrooms and potatoes, and fry for 6-7 mins over medium heat. Don’t cover with a lid.
Thicken the soup with flour. Sprinkle the fried mushrooms with wheat flour, 1 heaping tbsp. Try to spread the flour evenly so no lumps form, and mix the mushrooms with the flour thoroughly.
Then, stirring constantly, pour in about 4 cups of hot water (800 ml) in a thin stream. The flour quickly thickens, forming a dense soup. Season the soup with a pinch of salt and, though it is optional, a little black pepper.
Cook the soup for 10 mins over low heat without a lid, so it barely bubbles, and no longer. It is amazing how a small amount of porcini flavors the soup: after a few minutes of cooking the aroma is simply overwhelming. Lumps of flour dissolve well during cooking, but check for them, and if there are any, crush them with a spatula or spoon. The soup should be smooth.
Pour in the cream. Stir the soup, bring it to a boil and cook for another 2-3 mins.
Take the soup off the heat and let it stand for 10 mins. It should be hot, but not scalding.

Serving

Ladle the cream of mushroom soup into bowls and add 1 tbsp of rye croutons to each bowl. You can serve the remaining croutons separately.
Soups are usually sprinkled with herbs, but this one contains cream and herbs are hardly needed. I also don’t advise adding any aromatic spices that could drown out the taste and smell of forest mushrooms. At most, and only if you like, add a pinch of black pepper while cooking the soup, just as in the mushroom puree soup recipe.

Calories and macros

420 kcal

Serving ≈ 560 g

Protein8 g8% of kcal
Fat28 g63% of kcal
Carbs29 g29% of kcal

100 g75 kcalProtein 1.4 gFat 5 gCarbs 5.2 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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