This is very similar to my original mushroom soup. Except, just recently we ordered some mushroom soup from a local restaurant. We didn’t exactly like the consistency of it, but we were quite fascinated by how herbed and fragrant it was. The flavour was so strong, unlike any mushroom soup we’ve ever tasted. We found it quite interesting and surprising. So this is my recreation of that experience.
Herbed Mushroom Soup with Optional Crunchy Panko Topping
Ingredients
4 TBSP unsalted butter
2 lbs mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, chopped finely
2 TBSP flour
5 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups chicken stock
2 bay leaves
2 TBSP dried oregano
1.5 TBSP Italian spice
1.5 tsp dried thyme leaves
1.5 tsp dried basil
1 TBSP dried parsley flakes
1 TBSP soy sauce
1 cup milk
- For the Optional Crunchy Panko Topping:
1 TBSP olive oil
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 TBSP freshly grated parmesan
1 TBSP fresh minced parsley (or 1 tsp dried parsley)
Directions
- Heat butter in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add mushrooms with a pinch of salt (I prefer kosher salt here.) I often divide the mushrooms between a Dutch oven and a large frying pan to speed up the process.
- Cook mushrooms until they release their liquid; once the liquid releases it will start to evaporate. Once evaporated, the mushrooms will start to brown. Cook until the mushrooms are nice golden brown. It will likely take at least 20 minutes.
- When you are happy with the level of caramelization on your mushrooms, add your onions and cook them stirring occasionally for only about 3 minutes or so, until soft and translucent, but not brown.
- Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes or so, stirring constantly, to cook off the raw flour taste; do not brown the flour. Add the garlic and cook for only 10-30 seconds until aromatic but not brown.
- Add your stock very slowly while stirring and immediately turn the heat to high. Add dried herbs and bay leaves. Add soy sauce. You do not want to season the soup at this point with salt and pepper as it may result in it being over seasoned. After the liquid is brought to a boil, turn down the heat to maintain gentle simmer.
- Allow the soup to gently simmer uncovered for 30-45 minutes, and up to an hour if desired. If the soup ends up reducing too much, remember, it could always be fixed by adding more liquid.
- To make the optional crunchy topping: heat olive oil in a pan. Add panko crumbs and cook for about 2 minutes until golden, stirring often. Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Remove to a bowl and add parsley, Parmesan and season with salt and pepper.
- Discard bay leaves. Remove about 3/4 cup of mushrooms from the soup and transfer to a blender. Add 1 cup of milk and blend until creamy. Add this back into your soup and stir. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning with more herbs, salt or pepper. Adjust the thickness of the soup to your liking by adding more milk or stock. Divide between bowls and serve with the optional crunchy Panko topping prepared in step 7. Enjoy!
Notes
- In my soup, I often used dried Porcini mushrooms. I rehydrate them in 1 cup of boiling water (I reduced the chicken stock to 3 cups in the soup.) Then strain the water and add it to the soup, rinse the mushrooms, mince them and also add them to the soup.
- Feel free to replace any of the dried herbs with fresh herbs by tripling the amount (so instead of 2 TBSP of oregano, you will need almost 1/3 cups).
- Feel free to add some heavy cream, if you like. Just even a couple tablespoons will lighten the colour and add richness. I usually omit the cream.
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