Homemade cream of mushroom soup without the cream or lots of butter, just some cream cheese to make it really smooth and comforting.
INGREDIENTS
3 medium carrots
1 parsnip or one small slice of celeriac
2 medium onions
3 garlic cloves
1 ½ liter/ 6.3 cups good quality vegetable broth (or chicken stock)
500 g/ 1.1 lbs mushrooms
1 tablespoon butter
3 sprigs of thyme
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
350 ml/ 1 ½ cups milk
3heaped tablespoons cream cheese
some parsley
salt and pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
Chop the carrots, parsnip or celeriac into small cubes. Chop the onions and the garlic finely.
Pour the vegetable broth or chicken stock into a soup pot. Add the prepared vegetables, bring to a boil and cook until they are soft, about 15 minutes.
In the meantime, wipe the mushrooms clean with some kitchen paper and slice them.
Heat the butter into a large pan, add the sliced mushrooms and the thyme sprigs and fry until the mushrooms are golden, while stirring several times in between. This will take about 5 minutes. Remove about 1/3 of the mushrooms and set them aside.
Push the remaining mushrooms to one side of the pan. Sprinkle the flour into the empty side of the pan, let it get very slightly golden than slowly start adding about 1 cup from the soup while whisking all the time to avoid getting clumps. When the mixture is smooth, stir to coat the mushrooms with it. If it is too thick, you can add a bit more of the soup. Continue cooking for another 2 or 3 minutes. Discard the thyme sprigs.
Give the mushroom flour mixture to the vegetables into the soup pot. Add the milk and the cream cheese and blitz the soup very thoroughly. Heat through again but don’t let it boil anymore.
Add the mushrooms that you set aside previously and adjust the taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the soup with the chopped parsley and serve immediately.