What’s the one thing that makes this Mushroom Soup stand out from the rest? You’ll enjoy mushroom flavour in every mouthful. As strange and obvious as that sounds, most mushroom soups are actually nothing more than mushroom bits floating in a generically-flavoured creamy soup broth. But this one is 100% mushroom flavour – down to the last spoonful!
Mushroom Soup
It’s easy enough to sauté up some mushrooms in butter, then add some flour, broth followed by a good glug of cream, and call it a day. And while it will taste just fine, it won’t really taste that much like mushrooms, except for the bites you get with mushroom bits in it.
So in presenting you with a mushroom soup recipe I wanted to make sure it actually tasted like – gasp, shock, horror – mushrooms!
And how do we achieve that? Simple: Blitz the soup! Only this way can we release all the gorgeous, sweet and earthy flavours locked up in the mushrooms into every luscious, creamy mouthful!!
What goes in Mushroom Soup
1. Mushrooms!
Swiss Brown / cremini mushrooms have a stronger mushroom flavour than regular white / button mushrooms but make the soup browner. So I like to use a combination of both Swiss Brown and standard white mushrooms. This gives you the best of both worlds: an intense mushroom flavour with an elegant pale cream colour rather than a (very) brown one!
(Fun fact: White / button, Swiss Brown / cremini and portobello mushrooms are actually all the same mushroom – just in different stages of the mushroom’s life cycle. True story!)
2. Mushroom Soup – other ingredients
One really nice thing about this Mushroom Soup recipe is how few ingredients are actually called for. Why gild the lily with extra unnecessary flavourings when we already have a soup full of beautiful mushroom flavour!
Vegetable stock – Store-bought stock works fine here, but I really recommend trying this with Homemade Vegetable Stock one of these days! Vegetable stock is much easier and less messy to make than meat-based stocks like beef stock and chicken stock, calling for just basic vegetables and flavourings (carrot, celery, onion, garlic, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, coriander seeds);
Cream, or creme fraiche – This adds a luxuriously velvety mouthfeel to the soup so I really recommend not skipping it. If you don’t have either, stir in a knob of butter at the end.
Cream or creme fraiche? Cream is the obvious option, but I’ve also suggested creme fraiche for something a bit different.
What exactly is creme fraiche, anyway? Creme fraiche is a lightly soured cream, and unsurprisingly tastes like a cross between sour cream and heavy/thickened cream. It has the same velvety richness of cream with a slight tanginess (but not as tangy as sour cream). It’s also thicker like sour cream and can be dolloped rather than poured. It lends a lovely faintly sharpened note to the soup.
Which is better? I’d go cream for every day purposes, and reserve creme fraiche for company (yes, it’s more expensive and not carried by all grocery stores). But it’s no lesser a soup with “just” plain cream, I assure you!
Onion and garlic – Essential flavour base; and
Butter – For sautéing.
How to make Mushroom Soup
This soup is very straightforward to make, but there is time involved in sautéing and simmering. This task is essential to bring out all the wonderful flavours!
Sauté onion and garlic in butter for 5 minutes over medium heat until softened, but don’t let them go golden;
Cook mushrooms for 10 minutes until they become soft. They will release quite a lot of water during this stage but the water will evaporate. Don’t try to cook them until golden; they will refuse to because the pot is too crowded and we’re OK with this;
Simmer 15 minutes – Add vegetable stock, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, lower heat to medium and simmer gently for 15 minutes without a lid;
Add cream or creme fraiche and simmer for a further 5 minutes;
Blitz until smooth – Transfer the soup to a blender and blitz until smooth. WARNING! Make sure you remove the lid of the feeder (the hole in the lid of the blender), and cover the hole with a folded tea towel before you blend. Hot soup in a tightly sealed blender on full speed = soup explosion!! The lid will blow off, and you’ll end up with hot soup all over the ceiling – and all over yourself. Been there, done that!
Stick blender option: You could also use a stick blender, but I find that it doesn’t puree the soup as smoothly as pictured. It works fine, but a blender is better; and
Return to pot and simmer further on a low heat for a couple of minutes until bubbles caused by blending subside, then serve! Ladle into bowls and garnish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or cream, croutons and parsley or, if you’re feeling a bit Frenchy ‘n fancy, chervil.
I added some golden sautéed slices of mushrooms for the photos, as a cue so you’d know what this bowl of brown liquid actually is. I must confess I’ve never done that in real life before!! 😂
Oh and as I always say when sharing a soup recipe, bread for dunking really is not optional. I say it is in the recipe, but everyone knows I’m lying through my teeth! – Nagi x
PS. I guess I should follow that cheeky statement up with some bread recommendations! 😂 Here are my top 3 picks:
Crusty Artisan Bread – By far the most popular bread recipe I’ve shared, famed for the exceptional results and dead-easy method;
No Yeast Bread Loaf – Loved as an excellent speedy alternative that does not require yeast, along with Irish Soda Bread;
Focaccia – The latest addition to my bread collection, an Italian favourite wildly popular straight out of the gate!
Or choose your own bread recipe!
Watch how to make it
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Mushroom Soup
Ingredients
- 30g / 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 onion , chopped
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 400g / 14 oz white mushrooms (Note 1)
- 200g/ 7 oz Swiss Brown/Cremini mushroom (Note 1)
- 3 1/4 cups vegetable stock (bonus points for homemade veg stock! – Note 2), or chicken stock
- 1/4 tsp salt , cooking/kosher
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 3/4 cup crème fraiche or cream (any full-fat) (Note 3)
Garnishes/serving:
- Croutons (Note 4)
- Cream or extra virgin olive oil , for drizzling
- Parsley (roughly chopped), chervil (if you're feeling a bit fancy), or thyme leaves
- Bread for dunking
Instructions
- Chopping mushrooms: Cut mushrooms into 4 slices, then dice into 3 or 4 pieces.
- Saute onion and garlic: Melt butter in a large pot over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes until softened, but not golden.
- Cook mushrooms: Add mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Do not try to brown; they won't as the pot is too crowded but we do not need colour.
- Simmer 15 min: Add vegetable stock, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium and simmer gently for 15 minutes without a lid.
- Cream: Stir in cream (or crème fraiche), then simmer for another 5 minutes.
- Blitz: Transfer to a blender (do in batches, if necessary). Remove the cap from the feeding hole in the blender lid (Note 5), cover the hole with a folded tea towel. Blend until completely smooth.
- Return to pot, simmer for a minute or two until bubbles caused by blending largely subside and soup is hot.
- Serve: Ladle into bowls. Garnish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or cream, croutons and parsley or (if you're feeling a bit fancy), chervil. Don't forget bread for dunking!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
More vegetable soups
Life of Dozer
Builders are here jackhammering up a concrete slab all day today, and I can’t find Dozer’s earplugs. So I sent him off to spend the day with the golden retriever boarder!
I don’t normally post online but just wanted to comment on how exceptional this recipe was as are many many others on this website. Your website provides such an eclectic range of cuisines with perfect guidance on preparation unlike many other online sources. Thank you.
You are very welcome Elias – I am glad you are enjoying my recipes! N x
I’ve grown white mushrooms from caps to full, open portobellos & they’ve never turned brown. They are different varieties-
Just made this mushroom soup. Added some white wine and thyme. Tastes so good.
I am happy you liked it Mary! N x
I’ve tried several of your recipes (thanks!). This is one of the very best. Made it with a lot of fresh ground pepper, creating a nice kick with the earthy mushrooms. Excellent
I am glad that you liked it Barbara! N x
Made this soup today and the flavour was fabulous thank you I will be making this again x
Another fabulous recipe! So easy and yummy. I don’t have a blender, but my immersion blender worked just as well.
I have a large bag of dried mixed wild mushrooms. Can I use this instead of the fresh? Or should I do half and half?
So easy and delicious.
You are so reliable Nagi! Fabulous soup!
I only had white mushrooms but I did have a jar of dried crimini mushrooms from Costco that I didn’t know what to do with. So I added about a cup of them and increased the stock – I used chicken. The result was amazing and now I have a way to use up the dried mushrooms. (I actually had 2 jars)
This soup was SO good. My little sister and I came across this recipe and made it together and it is delicious. Absolutely 10x better than we expected a mushroom soup to be. AMAZING!! Warm, creamy, buttery, and perfect!
Well here I am again.Love your recipes.
Hi Nagi, I always love your recipes and look forward to trying this one. Could I use oyster mushrooms in it? A friend got me oyster mushrooms for my birthday and I have no clue what to do with them!
Hi Nichelle – oyster mushrooms are better in a stir-fry or you can saute or roast them. They are a bit too delicate in flavour for this soup. Pick one of my stir fries like this one https://discountspot.info/chicken-stir-fry-with-rice-noodles/#wprm-recipe-container-21977%3C/a%3E and use them there! N x
Ooh, fabulous! Thank you for your help!
Another amazing recipe!! Third time I make this one and this time I didn’t had enough stock so I’ve added 100ml of white wine to compensate.. it worked really well!! Thank you for sharing your amazing work 🙂
Thank you! First time making a mushroom soup and loved your recipe.
Thanks! N x
Three things I have to say about this soup and recipe:
(1) Absolutely delicious!
(2) Fabulous tip on using a tea towel to cover the blender hole–I’ve been deathly afraid of blending hot soup ever since my last soup explosion
(3) You are right about using more white mushrooms–I used mostly cremini (brown) and the soup was less than attractive (but still so yum)
Thank you!
I love this recipe. It is so mushroomy. I swap out sour cream if I don’t have regular cream and when I have company I add some crumbled blue cheese and put the mushrooms on top because it looks impressive haha
Always a favourite way to use up older mushrooms, which seems to have more taste than the fresh ones. Love your recipes never had a bad result yet. Thank you.
this soup is so good! i have a lot of cremini mushrooms left in my fridge and did not want it to go to waste then i found your recipe! So simple and easy to make. while my soup did not turned out as smooth as yours as I was using a stick blender but tastes great! i blend it for quite sometime to make sure all the chunks and tiny pieces are all blend in. Still a bit of texture but I dont mind! will definitely make again 😊 thank you so much for the recipe!
Purused through your receipes and would like more of your receipts