Basic cream soup
The base of cream soup is basically the same as those of puree soups, but usually it is richer and smoother. Most cream soups are compared with a roux (even measurements of butter and flour, thickened. It is important to make sure the flour in the roux is cooked). Delicate ingredients such as asparagus and mushrooms will cook in the stock. Remember to be careful if you want to add salt after you used some concentrated stock cubes. Use homemade stock if possible, or dilute the stock by using 1 l water per stock cube.
Mushroom cream soup as a base
Enough for 4
This cream soup is delicious with an extra scoop cream or crème fraiche. Replace half of the ordinary mushrooms with wild mushrooms such as porcini for a special occasion.
- 30 g (30 ml) butter
- 1 small onion, roughly chopped
- 250 g (1 packet) portobellini or button mushrooms, cut in half
- 5 ml (1 t) salt
- 1 l homemade chicken stock or 1 block chicken stock mixed with 1 l of water
- 250 ml (1 c) of milk
- ¼ onion, peeled
- 2 cloves pressed into the onion
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 peppercorns
- 30 g (30 ml) butter
- 30 g (55 ml) cake flour
- 5 ml (1 t) soy sauce
- Freshly grated nutmeg according to taste
Serving: A hand full of mushrooms – any variety like oyster mushrooms, portobellini or black mushrooms. Slice it into thick slices and saute in a smoking hot pan until soft.
1 Melt the butter in a medium casserole, add the onions and mushrooms and sauté until soft. Add the stock and simmer for about 15 minutes.
2 Heat the milk with a bay leaf and peppercorns in a saucepan. Melt the rest of the butter in another saucepan and add the flour, stir until it forms the paste or roux, remove the bay leaf and peppercorns (or sift it through a sieve). Add the milk gradually to the flour mixture. Stir constantly.
3 Bring the milk mixture to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for a minute. Add the mushroom mixture and finally the soy sauce and nutmeg.
4 Puree the soup until smooth in a food processor or with a hand mixer.
5 Form a tower with either of the sauteed mushrooms or sprinkle the sauteed mushrooms over when serving the soup.
Variations
Artichoke-lemon soup with creamy Greek yogurt
It’s always convenient to keep a few cans of artichokes to give this soup an elegant taste. Use the basic recipe for the mushroom soup.
Replace the mushrooms with 250g canned artichokes (drained). Sautee the onions first end the add the artichokes and stock. Grate the lemon peel into the soup and add a squeeze of lemon juice just before serving. Serve the soup with freshly chopped spring onion and double cream Greek yogurt.
Canned salmon works just as well, just remove the black skins. You will need 2 x 200 g cans of salmon. Use cream instead of milk and add 15 ml (1 e) sherry at the end.
Asparagus and Parmesan cream soup with mascarpone
Use the basic recipe for mushroom soup. Replace the mushrooms with 250 g of fresh asparagus, broken into small pieces. Saute the onion and then add the asparagus with the stock. At the end, stir in 60 ml (¼c) grated Parmesan into the soup and serve warm with a scoop mascarpone in each bowl of soup. Garnish with fresh Parmesan rolls cut with a vegetable peeler.
Cauliflower and blue cheese soup
Use the basic recipe for the mushroom soup. Replace the mushrooms with 250 g cauliflower blossoms (broken by hand into small pieces). Saute the onions and add the cauliflower and the stock. Finally crumble about 50 g of creamy blue cheese, such as Gorgonzola or simonzola into the soup and simmer until melted. Flavour with nutmeg and black pepper. Add some extra blue cheese crumbled over the soup just before serving.
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