StarterAI

Mushroom Soup

Name: Mushroom Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Ukrainian
Ingredients: 500 g Cremini mushrooms; 400 g Potatoes; 150 g Onion; 120 g Carrot; 2 cloves Garlic cloves; 1.4 l Vegetable stock; 150 g Sour cream, to serve; 30 g Unsalted butter; 25 ml Sunflower oil; 2 leaves Bay leaves; 10 g Fine sea salt; 2 g Ground black pepper; 20 g Fresh dill

Mushrooms browned hard in butter, then simmered with potato and onion into a clear, dark broth and served with sour cream and dill.

Prep: 15 min
Cook: 35 min
Difficulty: Very easy

About this dish

In Ukraine this is autumn food, made from whatever the forest gave that week, and the older recipes lean on dried mushrooms precisely because the season is short. It is not the blended cream soup of restaurant menus: the mushrooms stay in slices, the broth stays thin, and the richness arrives at the table in a spoonful of sour cream rather than in the pot. The one non-negotiable is the browning — mushrooms simmered raw give a pale, watery soup that tastes of almost nothing.

Vegetarian
Gluten-free
Not vegan because of Sour cream, to serve, Unsalted butter
Contains dairy because of Sour cream, to serve, Unsalted butter

Ingredients

4servings

500gCremini mushrooms
400gPotatoes
150gOnion
120gCarrot
2clovesGarlic cloves
1.4lVegetable stock
150gSour cream, to serve
30gUnsalted butter
25mlSunflower oil
2leavesBay leaves
10gFine sea salt
2gGround black pepper
20gFresh dill

Instructions

Heat the butter and oil and fry the sliced mushrooms over high heat for 10 minutes, until the water has gone and they are properly browned.
10 min
Tip: They will release liquid and stew for the first few minutes; that is normal. Wait it out, do not stir constantly, and only when the pan is dry does the browning — and the flavour — begin.
Add the chopped onion and grated carrot and cook 6 minutes more.
6 min
Tip: Onion goes in after the mushrooms, not before. Its water would delay the browning by several minutes, and by the time the pan dried the onion would be scorched.
Add the diced potato, stock and bay leaves and simmer for 18 minutes, until the potato is tender.
18 min
Tip: Keep the potato in fair-sized cubes. Small dice disintegrates and clouds the broth, which should stay dark and clear rather than thickening.
Season with salt, pepper and the crushed garlic, and take the pot off the heat.
3 min
Tip: Garlic at the end, raw into the hot broth, keeps its edge. Added at the start it would have cooked away hours ago and left nothing behind.
Serve with a spoon of sour cream and plenty of dill.
2 min
Tip: Stir the sour cream in at the table, not in the pot. In the pot it dulls the broth and risks splitting; in the bowl it stays a bright, separate ribbon.