Spiced up creamy mushroom potage
This creamy mushroom potage is a last minute creation I made as a starter to a dinner we had last weekend with friends. I wanted a vegetarian dinner although my guests were not vegetarians. Yes, I am guilty as charged, I do try to convert everyone to veggies. But hey, no preaching, only delicious food 😉 I needed a comfort menu where the absence of meat would not even be noticed. In such a context, mushrooms always work well, their taste, their texture operate magic. Luckily for me, it’s a mushroom season!
As for the main course, I did not take much risk, my vegetables au gratin, cooked slowly on a low temperature and with an extra layer of mozzarella, had already been tested and approved 😉
Here is the recipe for this creamy comfort soup spiced up with a touch of Espelette pepper. You can also serve it as a main dish with homemade croutons for example.
Serves: 5-6. Total time: 1h 10min (preparation 25 min, cooking 45 min).
INGREDIENTS (organic, in order of use)
3-4 tablespoons of Olive Oil
1 medium Onion
3 cloves of Garlic
600g of Mushrooms: 400g of brown Button Mushrooms and 200g of Shiitake
2-3 pinches of Unrefined Coarse Salt
1/2 teaspoon of black Pepper (or more according to taste)
1,2l of Water
100g of Fresh Cream or Vegetable Cream (oats is my favorite)
1 tablespoon dry Parsley
1 large tablespoon of Nutritional Yeast flakes
1/2 teaspoon of Nutmeg
some Espelette pepper (or any chili pepper of your preference) in flakes/powder to sprinkle the potage when served
PREPARATION
- Slice onion and garlic and cooked them to soften with olive oil in a covered soup pan, 10 minutes over medium heat.
- Clean and cut the mushrooms and shiitake too (I remove the shiitake stems because they are too stringy for the soup). Add them to the pan with salt, parsley and pepper and continue cooking still covered for about ten more minutes.
- Add water, cream or vegetable cream, nutritional yeast and nutmeg powder. Cook for about 45 minutes over medium-low heat still covered covered with a lid.
- When it is ready blend it all together until you obtain a smooth potage. Serve warm with some Espelette flakes and maybe add another tour of pepper mill.
