Mushroom Puree Soup with Croutons | Easy Homemade Recipe

Name: Mushroom Puree Soup with Croutons | Easy Homemade Recipe
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Mushrooms (champignons, shiitake, oyster mushrooms) 200 g; Potato 1-2; Carrot 1; Onion 1; Celery stalks 1; Garlic 2-3 cloves; White bread 3-4 slices; Butter 1 tbsp; Dried wild mushrooms if available; Salt, black pepper to taste

Homemade mushroom puree soup can be made from any edible mushrooms. With wild mushrooms the soup turns out very aromatic, with a pronounced flavor. With store-bought oyster mushrooms and champignons the result is just as good if you add dried porcini while cooking. Fresh croutons of fried white bread give the soup a special touch.

Mushrooms are quite dense and do not puree easily. Modern kitchen blenders and choppers handle the task. Blades spinning at high speed reduce any food to a smooth mass, which makes mushroom puree soup very simple to prepare. By and large, making this soup is no different from any other.

The broth uses the usual vegetables, as for a vegetable soup. As a rule, these are in every refrigerator: carrot, potato, onion, cloves of garlic. If you have them, you can add celery root and parsley root, or parsnip. A stalk of green celery simmered in the broth improves the aroma of the soup as a whole.

To make mushroom puree soup thicker, recipes usually call for flour, sometimes starch. I prefer to thicken soups with vegetable mass, and I often use a potato boiled in the soup for this. The principle is the same as in the recipe for potato soup with cracklings.

Mushroom puree soup is a first course with a delicate taste and the aroma of mushrooms. The soup is filling and great for a diet. I recommend serving it with lightly toasted white bread.

Mushroom puree soup can be made from any good mushrooms. If you put some up during the mushroom-picking season, the task is easier. Otherwise, shops sell various cultivated mushrooms: champignons, oyster mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, shiitake and so on. Take any. I really liked shiitake, which made the soup tasty and aromatic. I had a little worry that the soup might turn out dark, but it came out excellent.

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Ingredients

2 servings

Mushrooms (champignons, shiitake, oyster mushrooms) 200 g
Potato 1-2
Carrot 1
Onion 1
Celery stalks 1
Garlic 2-3 cloves
White bread 3-4 slices
Butter 1 tbsp
Dried wild mushrooms if available
Salt, black pepper to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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We will cook the mushroom puree soup in two consecutive stages. First, we make a good vegetable broth, using ordinary soup vegetables, including one large potato, whose flesh gives the mushroom puree soup its desired thickness. Second, we stew the mushrooms with onion, which we add to the finished broth after pureeing. Meanwhile, we fry croutons from white bread.
Pour 1.5 l of water into a pot and set it on the heat. Peel one onion, the carrot and the potato. Leave the garlic cloves in their skins. Wash the celery stalks. Cut all the vegetables into several large pieces and drop them into the water. Bring to a boil and cook the vegetable broth at a gentle simmer for 30-40 mins. It is important that the potato does not fall apart while cooking. Check when the potato is done and take it out of the broth in time. The other vegetables can cook longer.
Remove the crust from a few slices of baguette, white bread or sandwich bread and cut into cubes. Next, the bread cubes need to be browned. You can make them the way beer croutons are made, by simply drying them in a microwave or oven. Alternatively, which is more convenient and faster, lightly fry the bread cubes in a frying pan. Be careful not to overdo it: they should be golden and crunchy.
Mushroom puree soup is tastiest when made with fresh wild mushrooms. Of course, out of season that is a problem. You can use frozen or canned mushrooms. Alternatively, and more conveniently, use store-bought cultivated mushrooms: oyster mushrooms, champignons, shiitake. Sometimes you can find dried mushrooms or dried mushroom powder in shops, and adding them makes the soup very aromatic. Dried mushrooms must be soaked in cold water beforehand.
Melt the butter in a frying pan. Peel the second onion and chop it finely. Fry the onion in the butter until soft and a pleasant golden color. Do not overcook the onion, or the soup will have an unpleasant aftertaste. Slice the chosen mushrooms thinly. The size of the pieces does not matter, since the mushroom mixture will be pureed. Add the mushrooms to the onion and, if you can, add soaked dried mushrooms or 1-2 tsp of ground dried mushrooms.
Add 1-2 ladles of vegetable broth to the pan. Stew the mushrooms under a lid for 8-10 mins. The mushrooms will become soft and the whole mixture very aromatic. There is no need to add spices or salt. Do not stew the mushrooms over high heat; it is better to keep the liquid at a gentle simmer. Set aside a few small mushrooms for serving.
Then transfer the mushrooms with onion to a blender or chopper. Take the pieces of potato out of the broth and add them to the mushrooms. Puree everything until smooth. If needed, add more vegetable broth. The result is a semi-liquid, aromatic mixture.
Remove all the vegetables from the vegetable broth. They can be thrown away, as the soup does not need them. Bring the broth to a boil and pour in the mushroom puree. Stirring the mushroom puree soup with a spoon, bring it to a boil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook over low heat for 6-7 mins.
Ladle the hot mushroom puree soup into bowls. Add 1-2 tbsp of croutons and a few of the mushrooms set aside for serving. If you like, you can add more pepper to the soup, and many people do. But spices often overpower the taste and aroma of the mushrooms. Serve the soup hot only.
If you like, you can make the mushroom puree soup thicker by adding more potato or thickening it with a little flour or starch. You can also add cream to the soup to make a cream of mushroom soup. When serving, pass the remaining croutons separately.