(Vegan) Creamy Porcini Mushroom Soup for Souper Sundays

It's been one of those weekends. I have had a not great week with my asthma and although I thought it was getting better yesterday, it came to a head late last night so today, I have been mainly a couch potato when I haven't been sleeping. I finally got up and made this soup I was planning on because I already had the cashews soaking for the cashew cream and I didn't want the mushrooms to go to waste. Then I went and took a nap and got up to write this post. You can see the pattern of my day, so please excuse this late and quick post.
 

I like a good mushroom soup and this Creamy Porcini Mushroom Soup from the new The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by the always amazing Isa Chandra Moskowitz, uses cashew cream and dried porcini mushrooms for a rich and luxurious soup. I don't have the energy to type out the recipe, but if you are interested leave me a comment or shoot me an email and I'll get it to you.  (Update: I finally added the recipe!) 

Cream of Porcini Mushroom Soup

The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

(Serves 8)

1 oz dried porcini mushrooms

1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for at least 2 hours and drained

5 ½ cups vegetable broth (purchased or homemade)

1 Tbsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

¾ tsp salt + a pinch, or to taste

3 garlic cloves, minced

½ tsp dried thyme

8 oz cremini mushrooms, cut into ¼-inch slices

¾ cup dry white wine

freshly ground black pepper

chopped fresh parsley or chives for garnish, optional

oyster crackers for serving

Put the porcinis in a blender and blend on high into a fine powder—this usually takes about a minute. Add the cashews, along with 3 cups of the vegetable broth and the cornstarch. Puree until completely smooth: this can take up to 5 minutes depending on the strength of your machine. If needed, periodically stop the blender to keep it from overheating, and scrape down the sides of the blender jar with a rubber spatula to make sure you get everything.

Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium heat, heat the oil and sauté the onion with a pinch of salt until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and sauté just until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the cremini mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add the white wine, the remaining ¾ teaspoon salt (or less depending on the saltiness of your vegetable broth), and several grinds of black pepper. Turn the heat up to a boil and reduce the liquid to about half. It should take 3 minutes or so once boiling.

Bring the heat back to medium and stir in the cashew cream mixture and the remaining 2 ½ cups vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and cook until nicely thickened, about 7 minutes. Taste and adjust for salt and seasoning. Add a little water if it seems too thick. Garnish with parsley, if you like, and serve with oyster crackers.

  

Notes/Results: Rich, silky, and full of good mushroom flavor from ground dried porcini, this is an excellent creamy mushroom soup. As Moskowitz says, "It's a real trick of a recipe too, because the dried porcini powder makes the soup sooo fancy and flavorful, but then the regular old sliced creminis make it affordable." This is something you could serve to guest--vegan or omnivore--but not at all hard to make, just some prep time for soaking cashews. I would happily make it again.
 

We have some good friends in the Souper Sundays kitchen who shared some delicious dishes last week--let's have a look!

Melynda of Our Sunday Cafe shared Roasted Beet and Lentil Salad with Mint Dijon Vinaigrette and said, "If you like beets and/or lentils, I hope you give this salad a try, it really is so good. It is also perfect as a light supper or a meat-less entree if desired. This is adapted from a recipe found in Urban Pantry - tips & recipes for a thrifty, sustainable and seasonal kitchen. I had picked this book up, along with many others from our visit to the library last week. I upped the flavor with additional vinaigrette as the salad seemed a bit dry for my tastes and made a change in how the onions were presented, but the overall salad is right out of the book."

Claudia of Honey From Rock made a Winter Salad with Sesame Tahini Dressing inspired the book Picnic in Provence and said, "My choice of recipe was based mostly on needing food to bring to a Christmas party.  I liked that she said of this dish, it's "the only thing I can think of that I'd want to eat before Thanksgiving dinner.  That said, it would also make a lovely salad served with dinner itself."  A winter salad, in reds and greens - perfect for a Christmas party."

Tina of Squirrel Head Manor made this Healing Potato and Mushroom Soup when her husband got a nasty stomach bug and said. "Between washing my hands more than normal, disinfecting surfaces, laundry and reading.........I made soup. It was decided a homemade Potato Mushroom soup would be a good initial meal to reintroduce food to his empty tummy. The bonus was using the slow cooker.  This doesn't cook for a long period of time so it was beneficial that I could be home, attending to the cook time."

Shaheen of Allotment2Kitchen shared this Red Cabbage and Purple Potato Salad and said, "Another easy recipe made with the red cabbage pesto. This time stirred into some Welsh seasonal new potatoes and curly kale from the farmers market. Delish!"

 
Mahalo to everyone who joined in this week! 

Souper Sundays is back with a new format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches any time during the week and I post a recap of the entries the following week.)

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here. 

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you.

On your entry post (on your blog):

• please mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and link back to this post.
• you are welcome to add the wonderful Souper Sundays logo (created by Ivy at Kopiaste) to your post and/or blog (optional).

 
Have a happy, healthy week!

An InLinkz Link-up