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You are here: Home / Chill in the Air / After Summer Dishes / Real Cream of Mushroom Soup

Real Cream of Mushroom Soup

Opening a can is easy and convenient, but once you’ve tried real cream of mushroom soup, it’s hard to go back to canned.

Chunky cream of mushroom soup in brown stoneware bowl

You’re probably thinking of Campbell’s. And you may presume that “cream of anything” soup originated in America. It didn’t.

Long before canning was invented, and long before there was Campbell’s, the Italians and the French have been cooking soups with Béchamel sauce (a roux with milk or cream) as the base.

And that’s how our cream of mushroom soup was cooked. With a roux. But the roux is formed after grated onion, chopped mushrooms, thyme, salt and pepper had been happily swimming in the butter.

Adding the mushrooms much earlier than most cooks do coaxes out the flavor better. That means that, by the time the soup is done, it tastes of mushrooms instead of thickened milk.

And then, there’s the chicken bone broth. Most recipes use chicken bouillon or crumbled chicken bouillon cubes. But I find the aroma and flavor of chicken bouillon too artificial. I prefer chicken bone broth.

Real Cream of Mushroom Soup

Recipe by Connie Veneracion
Cooked with half a pound of fresh white button mushrooms, butter, milk and chicken broth, it's hard to say no to a second or even a third bowl of this lovely silky soup.
Prep Time 5 mins
Cook Time 20 mins
Total Time 25 mins
Course Soup
Cuisine International
Servings 6 people
Homecooked real cream of mushroom soup
Print recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 generous pinch dried thyme
  • 225 grams fresh white button mushrooms
  • 6 tablespoons butter divided
  • 1 tablespoon salt (you may need more)
  • ¼ teaspoon ground pepper (you may want more)
  • 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 4 cups full-fat milk
  • 2 cups chicken bone broth

Instructions
 

  • Peel the onion and grate until you have a quarter cup.
    Grated onion
  • Take four to six mushrooms and slice.
    Slicing white button mushrooms
  • Chop the rest of the mushrooms.
    Chopping white button mushrooms
  • Melt four tablespoons butter in a pot and spread the sliced mushrooms. Cook for a minute then flip to lightly brown the opposite sides.
    Browning sliced button mushrooms in butter
  • Scoop out and set aside.
  • Saute the grated onion and dried thyme in the remaining butter in the pan.
    Sauteeing grated onion in butter
  • Add the chopped mushrooms and the remaining two tablespoons butter.
    Cooking chopped butoon mushrooms in butter
  • Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring, for about a minute.
    Adding flour to pot with mushrooms and onion
  • Add the flour and stir quickly.
  • Cook, stirring constantly, for a minute or so.
  • Whisk the milk and broth together, and pour into the pot in a thin stream, stirring as you pour.
    Pouring milk into pot with mushrooms
  • Cook uncovered over medium heat (to prevent the milk from curdling), stirring often, until thick (it should coat the back of a spoon) and the soup leaves no flour-y sensation in the mouth.
    Cooking cream of mushroom soup at home
  • Taste. Depending on how well seasoned the chicken broth is, you may need to add more salt and pepper.
  • To serve, ladle your real cream of mushroom soup into bowls and top with the sliced mushrooms.

Notes

Optionally, sprinkle in some chopped greens before serving. Parsley is a popular choice but we discovered that aonori (Japanese dried seaweed) is superb with cream of mushroom soup.
Keyword Mushrooms
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Published: October 28, 2021 • Last modified: March 24, 2022 ♥ After Summer Dishes, Chill in the Air, No Meat, Lunch / Dinner, Soups

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