By Martha Rose Shulman
- Total Time
- 1 hour 45 minutes
- Rating
- 5(1,036)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Thick and creamy, with no cream, this tastes so much richer than it is. I use a small amount of milk to thin out the soup, but you can also use stock to thin it, if you don’t want to include any dairy.
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Ingredients
Yield:16 shots or 6 to 8 bowls
- ½ounce dried porcinis
- 1tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1medium onion, chopped
- 1leek, white and light green part only, cut in half lengthwise, cleaned thoroughly and sliced or chopped
- Salt to taste
- 2garlic cloves, minced (to taste, optional)
- 1½pounds mushrooms (white or cremini) sliced or coarsely chopped
- ⅓cup medium grain rice
- About 4½ cups water, chicken stock or vegetable stock, or as needed
- A bouquet garni made with a bay leaf and a couple of sprigs each thyme and parsley and an optional Parmesan rind
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1tablespoon soy sauce (more to taste)
- 1 to 2tablespoons dry sherry, to taste (optional)
- ½cup milk or additional stock
- Chopped fresh parsley or torn leaves for garnish
Garnish
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (16 servings)
55 calories; 2 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 8 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 2 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 326 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Place the dried porcinis in a bowl or pyrex measuring cup and cover with 2 cups boiling water. Let sit for 30 minutes. Line a strainer with cheesecloth and set over a bowl. Drain the porcinis through a cheesecloth-lined strainer. Squeeze the mushrooms over the strainer to extract as much flavorful liquid as possible. Rinse in several changes of water and set aside. Measure the mushroom soaking water and add water or stock to make 6 cups.
Step
2
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy soup pot or Dutch oven and add the onion and leek and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring, until tender and, about 5 to 8 minutes. Do not brown. Add a generous pinch of salt and the garlic and cook, stirring, until the garlic smells fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the fresh and reconstituted mushrooms and cook, stirring, until they begin to sweat and smell fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes.
Step
3
Add the rice, stock, bouquet garni, soy sauce and salt to taste, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes. Remove the bouquet garni and the parmesan rind if using.
Step
4
In batches, blend the soup until smooth. Fill the blender less than half way and cover the top with a towel pulled down tight, rather than airtight with the lid, because hot soup will jump and push the top off if the blender is closed airtight. Return to the pot, taste and adjust salt, and add pepper and the sherry, if using. Add the milk or another half cup of stock and heat through, stirring. If the soup still seems too thick, thin out a little more but remember to taste and adjust seasoning. Serve in espresso cups or in bowls, garnishing each serving with chopped or torn flat-leaf parsley.
- Advance preparation: You can make this a day or two ahead and reheat (you may want to thin it out a little more). The soup can be frozen, but you will need to blend it again when you thaw it.
Ratings
5
out of 5
1,036
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Cooking Notes
SuAyres
Ever since an episode of Anerica's Test Kitchen, about soups and stews, I've used their suggestion of adding 2-4 tablespoonfuls of vinegar (I use cider vinegar for more robust recipes, rice wine vinegar for more delicate ones.) It's amazing, what a difference it makes: it brightens flavors, and lends that certain "Je ne said pas Ce que". The addition doesn't render your dish sour at all, just more delicious.
Stephen DeNagy
This is one of the most flavorful mushroom souped I have had. In my case, the home made vegetable stock helped, and substituting Basalmic vinegar for Sherry. I tasted immediately before and after the vinegar (2 tbsp) and I was blown away with the maturation of the flavors! Used Shiitake, Crimini, Oyster and white mushrooms, a little above the 1.5 pounds, but compensated with the wet ingredients. The bouquet garni is likewise a great addition. Highly recommended!
Faye
Excellent. Incredibly rich flavor--no need for oil (I used canola spray to cook the onions/leeks) or dairy.
1) I doubled the amount of dried porcini (to 1 oz) for a more intense flavor.
2) No need to squeeze the porcini with a cheesecloth/strainer; just squeeze the hydrated mushrooms above the bowl you soaked them in, chop them on the cutting board, and throw the soaking liquid in the bowl in the pot along with stock.
Joan Stanburt
Super recipe - can only be improved by adding a garnish on the top. Buy a couple of handfuls of the fanciest mushroms you can find (enoki, oyster, sh*taki, chanterelles etc) and fry them up in a little butter, season and carefully place on the top of the soup. Even better when you place them on a dollop of whipped cream (or natural Greek Yoghurt) on top of the soup. Wowie!
Douglas Williams
The ginger suggestion sounds good, as does a discreet amount of vinegar. But by far the best fortified wine to add (in my opinion) is Madeira: the flavour combines with mushrooms exquisitely. Well worth the extra expense, Madeira is excellent in beef recipes and even beef gravy.
Suzanne z
Interesting. The cool trick of favor in my house is dry vermouth...not sherry. Goes into most any soup or stew....and has the effect you describe. Might need to try the vinegar.
sgschef
Anyone leave out the rice? Can it be done? We're severely carb restricted.
Martin
I thought the time well worth the effort. Second time around I added 1" of grated ginger with the garlic and think it brightened the soup. Was quite hard to find decent sherry in San Diego!
Mirandamom
I've made this twice now, the second time for Thanksgiving dinner. I'm a sucker for porcinis, so this is a dreamy soup for me. I made it with dairy the first time and without the second and found the results very similar.
Mary
This is a lot of work - the 1 hr 45 mins is no lie - but worth it.
bbqman
I like creamy soups, I was prepared to add cream but it doesn't need it. Good depth of flavor and mouth feel. Not complicated at all. After I pull the Parmigiano reggiano rind comes out I cut into strips and offer to my guests.
Robert
Nice soup but needed just a few tweaks. Namely,1.Puree only half of the soup: just strain out half of the solid elements & add the strained liquid back to the pot. Puree what is in the pot & add strained mushroom back to the soup.2. Using truffle salt instead of regular salt is a nice touch and3. Adding a dollop of sour cream with a sprinkle of chopped chives is a nice elevation to a more elegant presentation.Looks more like mushroom soup and less like gruel this way.
David
I cooked this on Monday and had left overs Wednesday night. I did roast the onions and leeks and also added some carrots for sweetness. Had to blend in food processor which was only mistake. Wished it was totally creamy, but flavor was awesome.
Thanks David
Rae
So so good - used balsamic vin (didn't have sherry) and added a plop of miso paste and it turned out divine. Served in a bread bowl & topped with cilantro and some parmesan
Adah
Very flavorful, the sherry was a nice touch. I was out of dried mushrooms, and just used baby bella and it was still excellent. I also didn't puree it, and my husband enjoyed the small pieces of mushrooms, and the little bit of barley I added.
Joan Pachner
Delicious. I had a container of miso soup in the fridge (leftover from an order of Japanese food) and used that in place of some of the broth. At the end added 1tsp fish sauce, which often helps with depth of flavor. Also more salt and a tsp of white balsamic vinegar. It's really good. My husband is dairy-free, so no milk, but will likely add a dollop of plain greek yogurt to my cup.
mikeO
Great recipe and so easy. We subbed an extra half ounce of dried “gourmet mushroom mix” (Costco) because our 24 oz fresh mushroom package only had 20 ounces of mushrooms in it. Seems to make for a deep flavor as well as giving us plenty of extra umami water if we needed it. Sherry vinegar was what we had and it really brightened everything up. We used an immersion blender instead of dirtying up the regular blender. Even better the next day!
Cindy
Incredible flavor. Used a variety of mushrooms, plus added the porcini soaking juice and a small parmesan rind.
Mary
This was a deeply flavored and delicious soup! Used both 1 tbs of sherry vinegar as well as 2 tbs dry sherry. Immersion hand blender worked well and left it a bit chunky. Topped with small croutons, a dollop of sour cream and chives. Definitely a keeper!
Ryguy
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keh.sutton
Used brown rice and a mash-up or weird/safe shrooms, sherry, & dash of apple cider vinegar - it was a HUGE crowd-pleaser. Perfect start to a veg winter dinner party. Will make again and again and again (because New England 6 month winters)
Sandy
This will be my Mushroom Soup of choice for now on. It is earthy and full mushroom flavor. I used just a touch of cream at the end, and took readers advice of of adding a splash of vinegar. I did not strain the soaked porcinis through cheeseclot, nor did I wring them out, just tossed them the soup. I used white mushrooms and baby bellas and it was flavorful and robust. I think it would be easy to make in advance.
Mary Sue
Wow! This soup was creamy without having any cream. It was east to make and incredibly flavorful!
Julia
This recipe is amazing. Loved it! Thank you!
katherine kohrman
2-3 oz instead of the 1/2 oz
Peter
Wonderful. I follow the recipe pretty closely, with a couple of exceptions: 1) In order to add some texture, before pureeing, I pulled out about half of the mushrooms/onions, and added them back in at the end, along with sautéed fresh shiitake mushrooms. 2) I substituted Balsamic Vinegar for sherry. Did not add any dairy, other than a bit of butter to sauté the shiitake mushrooms. It was a big hit. I might reduce the vinegar/sherry next time as it overpowered the mushroom flavor a bit.
susan
The comments which I should have read before making re adding vinegar were very helpful! Thanks
susan
I love Mushroom soup! I added 1/4 of wild rice because I love wild rice. When I ate it I added some additional soy sauce because I just needed something to kick it up a notch. Didn’t have sherry so didn’t add and that could have helped.
susan
This soup is excellent. I subbed vermouth for sherry. The bouquet was like a walk in a (mushroom) forest. Thank you!
Bell Julian Clement
Is the rice cooked before it goes into the soup ? Thoughts about substituting quinoa ?
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