My homemade mushroom soup came about because I was looking for something to use up a pack of mushrooms but didn’t want to make more pasta sauce. Whilst trying to think of ideas it hit me- Mushroom soup!!

Now whilst I am not a fan of ‘cream of mushroom’ – either fresh or tinned- I do adore those cartons of mushroom soup you get in places like covent garden ;0) and so thought I’d try to replicate that.

So it’s Sunday morning, I’m armed with an overload of mushrooms and a couple of leeks and getting quite excited but realised I didn’t have an onion! What was I going to do? Didn’t all soup bases need onion? I was perplexed!!

I threw caution to the wind and thought I’d at least try!! I upped the garlic content and rooted round the garden, grabbing some fresh thyme and parsley and headed back to the kitchen. The results were definitely worth it…

Ingredients

2 large leeks
Huge squeeze of garlic paste (about 4 cloves worth)
A large nob of butter or in my case frylight
400g pack mushrooms
2 sprigs thyme and a handful of parsley
1litre of veg Bouillion or chicken stock
Seasoning to taste

Method

Heat the frylight/ butter with the garlic paste in a heavy bottom pan
Slice the leeks and add to the pan, sweating for 4/5 minutes
Meanwhile slice your mushrooms (or use presliced)
Add mushrooms & thyme to the pan, whack up the heat & cook for 3 minutes
Pour in the stock & simmer for 5 minutes then liquidise with a stick blender
Add in the parsley and season to taste before serving
Delicious with crusty wholegrain bread or toast!!

For those of you who haven’t got time to make homemade soup…think again. We are talking fresh, delicious soup from fridge to bowl in under fifteen minutes!!