Mushroom Soup

From Gourmet Cooking without Meat, Paul Southey, Marshall Cavendish, 1980.

I wanted a mushroom soup to go with a mains course but didn’t want a soup that was milk or cream based. After a little searching I found this recipe that looked all right.

I cut up an onion and gently fried it in butter until it was soft. Then I added about 300g chopped mushrooms. These were stirred a little and let cook until the juices ran and they had darkened somewhat. A pint of water was added with a vegetable stock cube and the heat was turned up.

Meanwhile I took about 30g butter and mashed it with a fork into a tablespoon plain flour. I added a teaspoon Dijon mustard to this and continued mashing until it had become paste-like. When the water in the saucepan reached boiling point it was turned down to a simmer and the butter/mustard paste was added and stirred until it dissolved. About 50ml red wine went in and the mixture was let cook for another 20 minutes.

 

At this stage the soup had finished cooking so a teaspoon Vegemite was stirred in and the seasoning was checked. A little parsley was chopped and added.

It was good to have a mushroom soup that was not pureed and had no dairy in it. It was full of flavour and nicely textured with the finely chopped mushrooms.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔