Posted by Vivian in
Mushroom,
Soup
When it comes to a penchant for accepting any food samples that supermarket promoters hand out, nobody in the family can beat Elaina to it. She takes anything and everything that comes her way. There was once she questioned why I had turned down trying the pasta sample and my explanation that I had no intention to buy that brand after a bad experience of opening up a bag of pasta filled with weevils wasn’t good enough. She retorted that trying doesn’t equate to buying.
A couple of weeks ago, she was offered a small sampling of mushroom soup. She claimed that it was nice and bugged me to make it for her after the promoter handed me the recipe. I admit that it sounded odd initially to add Philly spreadable to soup since I really only use it on toast and sliced bread. I wasn’t so sure about the taste just looking at the recipe. But she was right, the soup did turn out pretty good. In fact better than the version I tried years ago which was diluted and lacking in flavor despite using proper cooking cream.
Feedback I got from the first attempt were a little varied. The adults agreed that it can be a little more creamier, though the consistency is still acceptable as it is. Elaina thought that the consistency is good for her, pretty good for a first try but prefers the promoter’s cooking. What a politically correct answer! I suspect it was because the mushrooms were diced a little too small to her liking whereas the promoter simply sliced it as indicated on the original recipe, and I switched out the brown capped mushrooms to Portobello for a better flavor (or so I think). So much for wanting to achieve the wild mushroom soup texture as opposed to that of an instant soup. For the next try I will need to experiment a little by reducing the stock from 3 cups to 2 or 2½ for a slightly thicker consistency (since it really is a bit too much anyway if soup is served as an entrée) and leave mushroom a little more chunky. Oh yes… and not forgetting that we need croutons next time to bring the soup to another whole new level!
Ingredients:
- 500 gm Portobello mushrooms (can be mixed with Swiss Brown mushroom or other varieties)
- 1 onion
- 3 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
- ½ teaspoon of grounded nutmeg
- 1½ tablespoon of plain flour
- 1 tub of 250g Philadelphia Cream Cheese Spreadable (soften)
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil (or butter)
Preparation:
- Dice up onion and mushrooms using a knife (or alternatively with a food processor or food chopper to speed up the work).
- Heat up oil in a pot and add in onion. Cook till the onion turns translucent.
- Throw in mushrooms and allow to cook for 10 minutes or when juices start to run.
- Add in plain flour and mix well.
- Pour in stock and nutmeg, bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and leave it to simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add in cream cheese (by the spoons rather in one big blob for easy stir through) and stir well making sure that the cream cheese dissolves completely.
- Serve with bread or croutons if desired.
Number of Servings: 4
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