What's For Dinner: Mushroom Soup

I saw a recipe for mushroom soup on Pinterest last week, and I couldn't wait to try it out. I've been on a soup-making kick of late, and this recipe doesn't disappoint. The worst part (for me, anyway) is the amount of time necessary to chop all the garlic and mushrooms. But once that's done, the rest of the soup comes together rather quickly. Please pardon the less-than-stellar image of this soup; the downside of blogging on the fly is that I often don't complete these recipes until way after the sun has set -- and now that the sun is setting not long after 4 o'clock, I'm left with zero natural light for photography. If I get the chance tomorrow, I'll try to give this soup a chance to be a bit more photogenic.

Mushroom Soup (printer-friendly version)
makes four servings

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

6 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups fresh mushrooms, cleaned and chopped [I used 2 cups of white mushrooms and 2 cups of cremini mushrooms]
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
2 cups organic chicken stock [to make this recipe vegetarian, simply substitute veggie broth]
3 tablespoons flour dissolved in 3 tablespoons filtered water
fine sea salt (to taste)
dash of nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup organic half-and-half

1 cup organic skim milk

sprig of fresh thyme for garnish [optional]

1. Add the olive oil and butter to the bottom of a medium-sized stockpot. Heat over medium to medium-high heat.

2. Once the butter has melted, add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

3. Add in the chopped mushrooms, dried thyme, bay leaves, and sherry vinegar. Cook, stirring often, until the moisture has been removed from the mushrooms, about 10-15 minutes.

4. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes.  

5. After 10 minutes, remove the bay leaves, and then stir in the flour-water mixture and continue stirring until the soup thickens. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

6. Stir in the half-and-half and milk. Bring back to a simmer, then turn off the heat.

7. Serve immediately. Garnish each bowl with a sprig of fresh thyme, if available.

(adapted from this Season with Spice recipe)