Cream of mushroom soup made from scratch is one of the ultimate pureed soups. It reminds me of Campbell's mushroom soup from a can, just made with fresh ingredients and often mushrooms I pick myself. It's smooth and rich with a modest amount of dairy, and, for those of you who need to watch the flour like me, it's gluten free. Today I'll walk you through two versions: one made with dried mushrooms and one with roasted fresh mushrooms.
I've made many mushroom soups over the course of my career, but the basic template for this one might be my favorite. I'd been meaning to test it again over the winter as I'll be serving it to a few hundred people at the Morels and Memories Alzheimers fundraiser this year in Watertown MN. If you're interested, here's a link for tickets.
Chef's Tips and Variations
General Tips
- This is a good recipe for mixed, dried wild mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, or a blend. Different proportions are outlined in the recipe and recipe notes.
- Certain dried mushrooms like porcini and Leccinum can have stronger flavors than others. Resist the urge to add more than 1 oz of dried mushrooms. With those species I may use .75 oz of dried mushrooms for the soup or increase the cream by ½ cup.
- A soup made from dried mushrooms that are tough, like chanterelles or hen of the woods should be strained after pureeing.
- If you want to make the soup dairy free, you can substitute ½ cup light olive oil or cooking oil for the cream, drizzling it in while the soup purees. Thin it with a splash of stock afterward as needed to adjust the consistency.
- Using stock (not water) will make the best soup. For a vegetarian cream of mushroom soup you could use something like my roasted hen of the woods stock.
- Roasting will improve the flavor of fresh cultivated mushrooms. Even baby bella / cremini and portobello will be fine if that's all you have. Shiitakes are probably my favorite cultivated mushroom for pureed soups.
This is the perfect place for a splash of that dry sherry, marsala or madeira wine taking up space in the cabinet.
How to Make It
You can make the recipe with fresh or dried mushrooms and I'll go over both methods as they're slightly different.
Dried mushrooms lose some of their volume so the soup needs to be thickened. Instead of roux I use a small amount of rice, which is how a bisque is traditionally thickened. One bonus of using rice as a thickener is that rice starch is less prone to forming a skin or clumping than wheat starch.
Dried Mushrooms
Soak the mushrooms in chicken stock or vegetable stock, swish around to remove dirt, squeeze dry and mince.
After the mushrooms are rehydrated they're baked with a little oil until caramelized. This is particularly good for boletes like porcini. You might remember the method from my caramelized dried porcini ravioli.
To build the soup, you sweat some chopped leek, celery, garlic and onion in butter or oil until very soft, adding a few spoonfuls of white rice about halfway through. the pan is deglazed with dry sherry or madeira, then the roasted mushrooms and stock are added.
The pot is simmered until the rice is tender and pureed in a blender. For the most velvety soup you can drizzle in some cooking oil at the end, but that's optional.
If you want some texture in the soup you can reserve two tablespoons of minced roasted mushrooms to add after it's been pureed.
Fresh Mushrooms
Just as with dried mushrooms, caramelizing fresh mushrooms to remove as much moisture as possible gives a richer flavor, so I roast them before adding to the soup base.
Once the mushrooms are roasted the soup is made the same way as with dried mushrooms, but I only use a tablespoon or rice as fresh mushrooms have more mass.
Serving and Garnishing
There's lots of ways to garnish the soup depending on what you want to do. For tasting menus, I'll thin the soup with a splash of stock so it can be sipped, serving it in China tea cups.
It's a good place for a spoonful of thinned sour cream, creme fraiche, croutons, chives or some roasted or sauteed mushrooms.
You can also put a few warmed, pickled mushrooms on top, although Ideally they would not be sweet or pickled with sugar. I've used my mushroom conserve / pickled mushrooms in the past.
My favorite garnish is a small salad of mixed mushrooms seasoned with olive oil, tiny whole fresh thyme leaves, salt, pepper, and a dash of white wine vinegar.
I rarely serve it the same way twice. Here's a few other ideas:
- If you want the Campbell's mushroom soup vibe with tiny bits of mushroom, save 2 tablespoons of the cooked, minced mushrooms from the soup and stir them in at the end after pureeing.
- Creamy soups love a good drizzle of oil. Extra virgin olive oil is great, but the nutty taste of hazelnut oil or walnut oil are good if you have some.
- I used to have my cooks put a teaspoon of mushroom duxelles in the bottom of the bowl for texture instead of putting mushrooms on top.
- Small pieces of sauteed shrimp are a good garnish if you want to gild the lily.
Related Posts
Gluten Free Cream of Mushroom Soup
Equipment
- Blender
- 3 quart sauce pot
- chefs knife
- 1 8 inch cast iron pan or oven-safe pan or a 12 inch cast iron pan or baking sheet for roasting fresh mushrooms
Ingredients
Soup
- 1 oz (28g) dried mushrooms or 12 oz fresh mushrooms
- 4 cups chicken stock or mushroom stock preferably homemade, warmed
- Generous splash of dry marsala or sherry or dry white wine
- 4 oz yellow onion 1 medium onion, diced ½ inch
- 4 oz leek tender white and green parts only, diced ½ inch
- 4 oz celery two ribs, ends trimmed, diced ½ inch
- 1 bulb Roasted garlic, mashed optional
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter or mild cooking oil like grapeseed divided
- ¼ cup long grain white rice
- 1 cup heavy cream or more to taste, up to 2 cups
- Kosher salt to taste
Garnishing
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Fresh ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp Mixed mushroom salad or a few sauteed, sliced mushrooms see recipe notes
Instructions
- You can use fresh mushrooms, dried mushrooms, or a mix of both.
Using Dried Mushrooms
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Cover the dried mushrooms with the stock and allow to rehydrate until softened, about 10 minutes. Swish the mushrooms around to remove clinging grit. Squeeze the mushrooms dry, remove to a cutting board and mince with a chef’s knife.
- If you find mincing tedious just roughly chop the mushrooms as they'll be pureed.
- Put the chopped mushrooms in a oven-safe pan (cast iron) with a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. Bake, stirring occasionally until browned and aromatic, about 25 minutes. You can reserve two tablespoons of mushrooms for a garnish to stir in at the end, or just puree them all.
- Strain the mushroom soaking liquid or make sure to not add the last tablespoon or two where the grit will settle.
Building the Soup
- Heat the butter, leek, celery, and onion in a 3 quart soup pot over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until translucent. Add the rice, stir, and continue cooking.
- Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are completely cooked, about 10 minutes. Deglaze with the sherry, add the chicken stock mushrooms and mushroom soaking liquid and simmer on the lowest heat until the rice is tender, another 10 minutes.
- Add half the cream and puree the mixture in a highspeed blender until very smooth, 1-2 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning for salt as needed. If you want the soup creamier, add the rest of the cream.
- Add the reserved mushrooms if using, transfer to a container to cool, then refrigerate. The soup will last for about a week.
- Serve the soup in pre-warmed soup bowls with a drizzle of olive oil and fresh cracked black pepper, fresh cut chives, or any other garnishes you'd like.
Using Fresh Mushrooms
- Quarter 12 oz fresh mushrooms, toss with 1 tablespoon cooking oil and a small handful of fresh thyme sprigs. Roast at 400 F for 25 minutes or until browned. Discard the thyme sprigs.
- Follow the recipe for the soup above, using only 1 tablespoon of rice.
Freezing and Storing
- The soup freezes well. After it's thawed, puree it in a blender to ensure it's emulsified, whisk, warm and serve.
Mitchell
Hello! This recipe sounds amazing, right about this time of year especially. Just curious, why would you recomend against using Suillis mushrooms?
I have some Slippery Jack's on hand, dried (With the cuticle removed).
Thanks! Love the content!
Alan Bergo
Hey Michelle. We'd have to take it on a species by species basis. I mean maybe S. luteus or S. granulatus could work, I'm just not a big fan of them in general. Definitely not S. americanus. Personally I prefer them cooked down and fried crisp with potatoes or caramelized in brothy (probably spicy) Eastern European type soups.
Bryan Rakovec
Just finished making albeit with common button mushrooms but it tastes fantastic. Roasted them on a sheet pan covered in parchment paper and they came out great. Only downside was a pint of whipping cream was $5.09...yikes. Thanks for the great recipes.
Alan Bergo
Hey Bryan. Glad it worked out alright. I've definitely seen price increases here too, but the way I'd look at it is like this: remember my recipes are very similar, if not identical copies to recipes I served in restaurants. This one is my original recipe to the letter, just scaled down. Sure, you spent $2.50 on the 1 cup called for in the soup. But, that $2.50 in cream made a batch of soup that'd cost you over $60 as I sold it in 6-8 oz portions for ~$10 a cup, and that was back in 2016.
Andrea Olson
Your ideas and writing are always amazing and entertaining, and recipes are delicious! I have made many cream-o-mushroom soups with various flours, but LOVE the idea of cooking the white rice with the soup and then blending it all together. I bet this will hold up without separating better than some of my versions.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Andrea
Allison Koster
I've made homemade mushroom soup a handful of times, and never thought of roasting the mushrooms (I've always just sauteed them for a long time)! Great tip! Usually I've done a mix of 2-3 types of fresh, and a couple varieties of dry mushrooms, but now I'll be more brave and do one or the other.
Brigitte
Thank you for sharing ideas for variations as well! My first thought was how cool it would be to give this to someone in a mug as soon as they come over for a visit! Maybe it's just the snow that's got me in this mood, but the recipe is great timing!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Brigitte.
Linda
I can smell this soup already! Question: Could I substitute cashew cream for the heavy cream? If so, do you have any tips for doing so?
Alan Bergo
Hey Linda. I haven’t used cashew cream in this personally, but as it’s pureed in a blender it should be fine. There’s so many ways I’ve made this over the years it was hard to distill it into a single recipe. You can also try the oil version I discuss to keep it dairy free.