Mushroom Soup
I wasn’t planing on sharing a soup recipe this morning but with the impending winter storm making its way towards the East Coast, I figure that many of my followers will have “soup on the brain.”
This Mushroom Soup was the runner up in my recent soup contest and my personal favorite. It’s not one of those snow day, simmer on the stove for hours concoctions but if you find yourself in a Cold War Russia-esque, barren supermarket looking for milk, bread and eggs, pick up a package of mushrooms (they’ll be there!) and you can make this soup in between snowball fights and hot cocoa breaks.
The original Mushroom Soup recipe is from Gourmet magazine’s February 1993 issue and my friend Cristina has been making it since her days of living in Hong Kong. It’s like Chinese hot and sour soup, minus the heat (although a pinch or two of red pepper flakes could certainly remedy that). If you like the consistency of hot and sour soup (broth thickened slightly by the addition of cornstarch) and the salty-vinegar taste profile, I am going to try to convince you that the trip to the grocery store is worth the effort. The recipe calls for beef broth but Cristina told me that she often substitutes chicken or vegetable broth. I used mushroom broth to ante up the mushroom quotient and threw in an extra handful of mushroom slices because…well, why not? Let it snow!
Mushroom Soup
- 1 lb mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1 Tbls unsalted butter
- 4 c broth (beef, chicken, vegetable or mushroom)
- 1 1/2 c water
- 3 Tbls cornstarch
- 2 Tbls soy sauce
- 2 Tbls rice wine vinegar
- 4 scallions, sliced thin
- In a stockpot sauté the mushrooms in the butter over high heat, stirring, until the liquid the mushrooms give off is evaporated.
- Stir in the broth and the water.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl whisk together the cornstarch, soy sauce, and vinegar until the cornstarch is dissolved and stir the mixture into the soup.
- Bring the soup to a boil, stirring, and simmer it for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the scallions and salt and pepper to taste and simmer the soup for 1 minute more.
- Enjoy!