The recipe from our inaugural episode "Navigating Change with a Bowl of Vegan Mushroom Soup" on the Feed Your Fire podcast, dedicated to my sister and her boyfriend Josh in his fight with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. This is their favorite soup, made with lion's mane mushrooms for brain health, and we to prepare it together and ship to them in care package.
Listen to the Feed Your Fire Podcast episode here.
Vegan Creamy Mushroom Soup
This soup is vegan so its “creaminess” comes from potato when its blended and pureed.
Ingredients
About 2 Qts. vegetable stock
A variety of mushrooms (I used cremini, shitake, and Lion’s Mane). Lions Mane is particularly good for brain health.
3 T. olive oil
One shallot
3 sprigs of thyme
One onion, roughly chopped
One clove of garlic
One Russet potatio, peeled
2-3 bay leaves
Zest of one lemon
2 T. parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper
To Prepare
Start by sauteing the mushrooms in batches with olive oil and then I add shallots and thyme and remove them from the pan and set aside. In that same pan, I add a bit more olive oil and then sautee onion, and when that’s translucent, I add garlic really quickly and add them add back about ¾ of the mushrooms – keeping the rest set aside. I pour in the stock, a diced potato, bay leaves, salt and pepper and I just let that cook till the potatoes are fork tender and the mushroom flavor has really been absorbed into the liquid. Let this cook for a while.
Once soup has been cooking for about 15 minutes and the potatoes are tender, pick out the bay leaves and then carefully transfer it to a blender in batches. Put a towel over top of the blender each time so the hot soup doesn’t blast onto you. Put the blended soup back into a pot. If its thin, you can let it cook longer to reduce down and if its too think, feel free to add a little water. Then sprinkle it with lemon zest and parsley for some brightness.
I like top the soup with crunchy lentils and serve it with crusty bread, but that’s totally optional.