Mushrooms are arguably the most highly nutritious edible medicinal there is in the phyto-culinary kingdom! For this culinary herbalist, that means they reign supreme. Mushrooms deliver incredible anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-aging, and immune-promoting benefits. Offering naturally recruited vitamin D2 (converted from UV sunlight), vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and amino acids, plus ergosterols for mitochondrial integrity, let’s face it, mushrooms do it all.
This recipe modified by me comes from The Mushroom Cookbook by Micheal Hyams. As a chef he is masterful at highlighting the unique flavors of each mushroom, but for this recipe, what I enjoy is the pairing of lots of mushrooms with the sweet herb tarragon. Tarragon is often an overlooked immensely flavorful antioxidant herb and brings a depth of flavor and freshness, combining beautifully for a delicious, anti-inflammatory meal.
Firstly you can use any mushrooms available in your region (foraged or purchased). While the recipe works for any mushrooms you really need to combine different varieties to get a real kaleidoscope of mushroom flavors. While mushrooms have subtly different flavors, they do have different textures which is also important in this soup. I highly encourage you to use the bulk of the mushrooms to more affordable varieties such as trumpet, oyster, button, crimini, and portobello. Add with those a sprinkling of more exotic and yes expensive varieties such as maitake, enoki, shiitake, and morel. Also consider, for this I used some older mushrooms that were semi-dried – NOTE – if you have mushrooms in your fridge that are getting old, put them in a brown paper bag and put them in the back of the pantry where they will dry out. Use these to flavor soups, add to sauces and chop up and add to casseroles.
Oyster, crimini, morel, portobello, shiitake, button mushrooms
The texture is entirely up to your preference. My husband likes a really chunky mushroom soup, I like a combination of both, and not too chunky. Using the method of blending part of the soup adds ALOT of creaminess and thickness to the soup, I find because of this I need no bread or anything as it feels like a meal in itself. So, if you are experimenting and find that you blended too many mushrooms, add some more stock to thin the soup out, and next time, you’ll know what your preference is. By blending only a few mushrooms or none at all, the soup should be liquid and milky with chunks – if this is your preference, eating it with a gluten-free baguette can be delightful to scoop up the chunky pieces and relish the broth.
This is a wonderfully easy soup to make and tastes just like spring and summer. It freezes very well and I often will freeze leftovers for next year on those lazy summer days you couldn’t be bothered cooking but feel like something fresh and earthy. It is best served hot and with all the vegetable meat is incredibly filling, so don’t misplace this dish as an ‘appetizer’, it’s a delightful meal all in itself. Enjoy!
Creamy Mixed Mushroom & Tarragon Soup
Serves 6
Ready in 30 minutes
Ingredients: NOTE- as per instructions above, these are suggestions of mushroom varieties, whatever you have available to you then use. However, the best-flavored soup will be from a combination of different mushroom varieties! Whatever your combination, you want to have around 1.5 pounds or, 0.7 kilos of mushrooms total.
1 TBS dairy-free butter
1 TBS olive oil
3 garlic cloves crushed
200g crimini mushrooms slices
100g shiitake sliced
200g oyster mushrooms sliced
3 whole portabello mushrooms chopped
2 morel mushrooms sliced
3TBS fresh tarragon, chopped, plus extra for garnish
1 tsp coconut sugar
4 cups vegetable stock (can use chicken stock if you prefer)
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup dairy-free cream, nut cream, or, dairy-free creme fraiche
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp pink peppercorns whole
Salt and pepper
Crusty gluten-free bread to serve (optional)
Method:
In a large pan, heat dairy-free butter and oil, add garlic.
Saute for 1 minute until aromatic, add all the mushrooms and tarragon, sauteing for 4-5 minutes until golden.
Add coconut sugar, stock, and bay leaves, then bring to a boil, simmering for 30 minutes.
Let cool for 5 minutes and scoop 1-2 ladles worth of soup into a blender (this is optional – please see “Texture is entirely up to your preference” above. Blend for 1 minute until smooth and creamy.
Reintroduce to the pan. Add dairy-free cream of your choice, lemon juice, and pink peppercorns.
Season with salt and pepper, garnish with extra tarragon, and serve with crusty gluten-free bread.
Lasts for up to 5 days in the fridge covered in a container.
To learn more about medicinal mushrooms, you may enjoy The Magic of Medicinal Mushrooms
