Today, we had mushroom soup. It is only the second time I have made mushroom soup, and it is the first time it has actually tasted of mushrooms. The previous attempt tasted like I imagine musty Victorian wallpaper paste would taste. It does take a lot of mushrooms, but the Christmas ordering frenzy is upon me, and we did have a lot of mushrooms. My version uses onions, garlic, a stock cube, mushrooms, fresh thyme, water and vegetable oil. The version on the internet used cream and butter too, and didn’t have thyme in it.. Internet soup recipes often use cream and butter, but I decided that we could do without it, and I seem to have been right. My view is that soup is supposed to be frugal and healthy and filling it with dairy products is not the way to go.
I’m not sure if I will try it again. I like mushroom soup but carrots are a lot cheaper and don’t shrink so alarmingly when you cook them. We ended up with two large bowls of soup. If I’d filled the pan with that amount of root veg it would have made six or eight bowls.
In the evening we had spicy lentil burgers which we found in the back of the freezer. They had been lying there, undisturbed, since the first lockdown. We moved things round to fit a turkey crown in, and found several packets that we had forgotten. I always say that we should get more organised in the freezer, but I never do anything about it. That sounds like a New Year Resolution just waiting to be made. And the good thing about it is that I will be able to make it next year too, because it never gets done.
To go with the burgers I cubed a lot of root veg (carrots, swede and parsnip) and added sweet potato before boiling until softened. They went into a wok with onions, leeks and sliced greens to become a vegetable hash. I used the water from the boiling in another pan of veg, which became vegetable soup. I’m pinning my hopes on soup as a way of getting through Christmas without significant weight gain.
I couldn’t find my soup pictures so I used a waterlily.
You are quite the gourmand and so thrifty with your ingredients, all sound delicious and wonderful. Come cook for us anytime!!
Even after several dilutions the soup I had for lunch (in my new soup flask) still formed a mound rather than laying flat like liquid. I may have to work on the consistency!
The soup sounds stellar.
I enjoyed it, though I’m sure it could be improved. Looking forward to vegetable soup for lunch tomorrow.
Have you tried celery and Stilton? It defies your embargo on dairy products in soup but it is very tasty.
I tend to view Stilton as an ingredient whereas butter and cream are pollutants. I will definitely try it in the New Year.
I do more of a cream of mushroom and I add some mushrooms towards the end.
I thought of adding more, but I’m lazy. 🙂
I haven’t cooked a meal since Friday night…so I can’t comment on lazy
Sounds like the ideal lifestyle to me . . . 🙂
Nice work if you can get it…
🙂
I never make soup, Gillian does though and I think one soup maker in a household is probably enough. I don’t think she’s made mushroom though. It tends to be celery or carrot, there’s a few one with butternut squash that is a bit curryfied, apparently that’s not a word but I like it so, it can stay. Is a lentil burger dry? Or can you have it with gravy? Interesting soup post by the way 😀
I use a lot of carrots and parsnips – you can add curry to them too. Shakespeare is famous for making words up, so make up as many as you like. curryfied is a useful word, so we will have to start using it more. The lentil burger was reasonably moist, but it’s a well known fact that gravy goes with anything, so I see no problem with it. Well, it probably doesn’t go with trifle, but apart from that . . .
There was a time when I added Curry to nearly everything, so yes I’ll agree with that. The man in our local Indian some years ago told me I was a Curry addict, which was a little disconcerting 😂 I find I’m eating more veggie stuff recently but that’s possibly because my teeth aren’t as sharp as they were. 🤷🏻
Talking of Curry – your book arrived today. Will be starting on it this evening.
Oh… the litmus test 🤫😊
It looks good, the name sounds right for an author, and your face looks like it belongs on a man who writes about the mean streets of Bradford . . .
I think that might be a compliment but not quite sure 😂
You are right, it might be . . . 🙂
I agree with you on cream and soup; good work with the wok
Thank you. I had a good day in the kitchen – they are not always that successful.
All sound very tasty indeed! We make a lot of soup in our home. None with cream. And the soups are tasty, frugal, and healthy. Check, check, check.
This is good to hear. 🙂
Rick and I both love soup, and make a lot of it, though I am probably better at stewps. I’ve never tried making mushroom soup. Your version sounds good, and I am sure it went well with the lentil burgers.
Everything seemed to go well yesterday. Today, of course, is another day . . .