Vegan Mushroom Soup – Creamy and Comforting

Hi Vegetarian Carnivores! I’ve been posting a lot of #quarantinelife food lately because I’ve had way more time to create content now that I am basically sitting at home all the time. Now, I know that the Covid-19 quarantine is a stressful time for all of us and that we all cope wih stress in different ways. For me, cooking is a MAJOR stress reliever. In fact, I can directly correlate how much pressure I am under with the amount of dishes in the sink and leftovers in the fridge. Some may say that I have a problem, and to that I say…. you’re probably right LOL! But you’ve read this far into the post so let’s get chatting about today’s star recipe. When I made this a couple of days ago, the picture created a MAJOR buzz online, so I wanted to get the delicious recipe out to all of you as soon as possible! Let’s talk about my creamy vegan mushroom soup!

Soups

Ok I’ll keep this section short. I posted a recipe for a vegan Asian style chicken noodle soup just a few days ago and basically poured my heart out about how much I love soups there. So I’ll defer you to that article here, if you’d like to read my emotional outpour.

And even if you don’t want to hear about how much I love soup, check out the article anyway because that noodle soup was bomb! Just sayin’

Mushrooms

Ok guys. I. Love. Mushrooms. So much. There isn’t a single dish that I can think of that wouldn’t be enhanced by the addition of mushrooms. Or really, just make mushrooms the centerpiece of a dish and you can’t go wrong! 

You can make a portobello cap a literal burger patty and smash it between buns! Or you can pulse up crimini mushrooms and mash them together with black beans for a burger, or puree them as a dumpling filling, or simply saute them with garlic and salt, or create a delicious soup broth from slowcooking shiitake mushrooms. Trust me when I say the possibilities with various types of mushrooms are endless.

The Cream

Back when I was eating a ton of dairy, I’d get those cans of condensed cream of mushroom soups from the grocery store. It sounds gross to me now because now I read labels on them and am usually horrified by what labels and ads try to market to us as “health foods,” but that is a topic of discussion for another day! I basically loved canned condensed cream of mushroom soup for a few reasons, but when I stopped eating heavy cream I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to find a thick plant based cream that would do the trick. I didn’t want to use coconut cream because the flavor of coconut is too strong for my liking in anything but Thai dishes, which are coconut heavy to begin with.

So that kind of worried me. But I am nothing if not adventurous! I knew that I had already used creamy oat, soy, and pea milks to create creamy bechamel sauces for pasta, but was worried about how things would thicken up in a soup that traditionally called for a heavy cream.

But I gave it a try anyway. And guess what? It worked! In fact it worked so well that both my parents have requested this be on regular rotation as long as I’m staying with them until I move back to Sonoma after quarantine!

So yes, it is really *that good*

So let’s get started!

Ingredients

1. 12 oz brown, crimini, white mushrooms, thinly sliced
2. 2 tbsp oil for sauteing
3. 2 tbsp plant based butter (I used Milkadamia)
4. 3 tbsp flour
5. 4 cups water
6. 3-4 tbsp bouillion base, depending on how salty you like your soups
7. 1 cup creamy plant based milk (I used Oatmilk, but Pea milk will work too!)
8. 1 tsp Italian seasoning
9. Cilantro, for garnish

Instructions

1. In a heavy bottom saucepan, saute mushrooms in oil and butter until they are cooked all the way through, reduced, and dark brown.
2. Sprinkle flour on top and mix well until all the mushrooms are evenly coated.
3. Add the water and bouillion base and Italian seasoning. Mix well and make sure no clumps of flour remain floating in the broth.
4. Bring to a rolling boil for 10 minutes.
5. Turn the heat down to simmer and add the plant milk.
6. Simmer for 10 more minutes.
7. Serve and garnish with cilantro.
8. Enjoy by itself or with a piece of crusty bread 😉

Results

This recipe was a great way to make a delicious meal out of just a few ingredients that I just had in my fridge already. Isn’t that the theme of #quarantinecooking anyway? I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on this below! So leave me a comment! I respond to everything, guys 🙂

See you soon!

Janani <3 <3