That is a gorgeous, vibrant green soup! What kind of cheese do you use so as to not make it cheesy or gloppy — two things that generally keep me from ordering this type of soup?
There is both grated cheddar (3 oz) and grated parm (1.5 oz) in the Cook’s Illustrated recipe I use, but the amounts are modest compared to what I believe to be the case when you order this soup in a restaurant. Commercially made, this soup is typically gloppy. This version is not.
I got portobellos in my CSA this week so I made some mushroom soup. Not just any mushroom soup, though - the house recipe from Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia, which serves THE most delicious mushroom soup (the local area is a mushroom growing capital.) I’ll post the recipe tomorrow, but for now, I’ll
simply report that it’s 11:34 PM and I had a full meal at 6, but I’m sitting here eating a huge bowl of mushroom soup and I’ll have to stop myself from eating a second before bed.
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I’ve been enjoying this guy a lot.
I’m going to try making this.
Winter is arriving this weekend up in the mountains!
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(That’s a gift link)
I discovered this recipe years ago via the Essential NY Times Cookbook. I make it easy on myself and just roughly chop all those aromatics, then use the FP to mince. I’ve even doubled them up and frozen half for later. I’m generally subbing ginger for galangal, and sometimes lime zest for the leaves. I’ve made this with catfish and with other white fish, with shrimp, or a combination. I usually stir in baby spinach at the end to get some vegetable in, and have also added sliced fresh shiitakes when doing the initial simmer. I’ve also added chunked up white potatoes at the same time, or added soaked rice noodles, instead of serving over rice.
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That sounds really great! I love Laotian food. Saved!
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I said I would post the recipe, so here it is. I had to supplement the shrooms I got in my CSA with supermarket mushrooms, but it was worth it. I started out telling myself I’d only make half a batch, because Mom won’t eat this and freezer space is at a premium, but… you know what happened.
I didn’t stir in the cream at the end of cooking because I knew I was going to freeze some of this; I’ll add it to each batch as I defrost. The photo shows a serving with cream added and heated through with the soup.
This may not look like much, but the volume of delicious alliums (lots and lots of leek and shallot) and the richness of the mushroom stock really deliver here. I used pretty mundane mushrooms - locally-grown portobellos and some supermarket baby bellas - but the depth of flavor is outstanding. The cup of high-quality Spanish sherry probably didn’t hurt, either.
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have been ‘local’ to Kennett Square, sounds like a soup I need to do . . .
the linked recipe . . . if I’m reading right…
6 cups (various) mushrooms - i.e. 2c x 3 varieties each . . .
makes 2+ gallons of soup?
might have to reduce that a bit for two people…
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Oh, we’ve been there. After Longwood Gardens, we always stopped to have some kind of dish with mushrooms. Had the soup a few times.
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one of our favorite soup recipes is Alton Brown’s take:
with the following notes…
make half - it’s a mega-recipe
DW did not care for garlic or lemon adds - so I leave them out
tried with vegetable broth, chicken broth/stock… we prefer beef stock
doing it now, pot on stove… it’ll be ready in ~4 hours…
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You just made me realize I totally misread the recipe.
I didn’t make the whole volume and I certainly did not use all the mushrooms called for in the soup (although I did use the right amount for the stock.)
The recipe can certainly be scaled way down.
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I have it captured into my “recipes to try” folder…
we moved, but we’re still only ~an hour from the Kennett Square mushroom world.
the local markets stock the cute little plastic containers, but researching the labels/codes . . . they all come from there.
our local Wegman’s has an incredible mushroom “counter” - it’s my ‘go to place’ for specific items - 'shrooms being one…
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Ravi’s lentil and apricot soup is so good.
One of the nice things about making soup is that after you’ve got a little bit of confidence in the kitchen, it’s easy to throw together random ingredients to make a decent soup. You can open up a couple of cans of beans or crushed tomatoes as a base, or start raiding the fridge for veggies that are about to turn or you find a little scrap of meat lurking in on a back shelf that hasn’t crossed the line quite yet. Add lentils or cream or potatoes and the seasonings that seem to go with your kitchen gleanings and there you go: a healthy and reasonably cheap meal, perfect for eating while watching the rain/snow fall. I think some of my favorite soups over the years are what my brother would have called ‘musgo soups’, as in “everything in the fridge that must go.” Not only nourishing for the body, but also satisfying for the soul, knowing that nothing is going to waste.
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My family calls it (via my maternal grandmother) chagot soup, as in made with whatchagot.
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That’s cute that baby bellas are considered “exotic.” They’re just the immature version of portobellas, which is a variation of the common white button mushroom.
That said, I love them all 
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