Family Mushroom Soup

Family Mushroom Soup - MS Word document for downloading

In “The Complete Book of Home Freezing”, Audrey Ellis has some wonderful recipes, which I have used for years. (Yes, it is a very old book and she was writing long before the advent of “Ready Meals”!) I adopted quite a bit of her theory “My experience has always been that multiplying the basic amount to serve your family by three, produces a quantity that is practical to cook, (unless you have a very large family). This gives you a meal to serve and two to store…” Over a period of time, you can build up quite a selection in the freezer - so you can have evenings “off” where you are simply reheating previously made dishes. This is a bonus if you are very busy or tired (as at the end of term!) or ill. On a more cheerful note, it also means you can treat unexpected visitors to your home cooking.

 Email This Post To A Friend

Obviously, some dishes are more suited to this than others. Home made soup is a typical example. It provides a really tasty quick meal with the “feel good” factor. It’s lovely for a Saturday lunch, served with lots of fresh bread and butter! (Can you just make out the parsley in the photograph? It sank very rapidly!)

Here’s Audrey’s recipe for Family Mushroom Soup. It takes only minutes to make in the processor and tastes far better than any can. The butter adds flavour, so best not to substitute. In some supermarkets, you can buy large quantities of mis-shapen or odd sized mushrooms very cheaply which will make this recipe very economical. This recipe relies on using the best quality stock cubes for a really good flavour.

Family Mushroom Soup.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Quantity - 4pints (2¾ litres)

Cooking time: 25 minutes initially

Re-heating time from frozen: about 10 minutes

Ingredients & Shopping List:

• 1 large onion
• 1½ lb (700g) mushrooms
• 4oz (100g) butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• salt and pepper to taste
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 2oz (50g) white bread
• 3 pints (1½ litres) hot chicken stock.

Method.

1. Finely chop the onion and mushrooms.
2. Melt the butter and oil - (the oil stops the butter burning).
3. Sauté the vegetables over gentle heat until the onions are softened, but not browned.
4. Stir in the parsley and seasoning.
5. Soak the bread in a little of the hot stock.
6. Stir into the pan, then gradually add the remaining stock and stir well.
7. Bring to the boil, cover, then simmer for 15 minutes.
8. Liquidise in batches, in an electric blender (or sieve, says Audrey!)
9. Cool.

To freeze:
Pour into polythene containers, leaving 1″ (2.5 cm) headspace, seal and label.

Storage time: 4-6 months

To serve:

1. Put still frozen soup into a saucepan.
2. Add ¼ to ½ a pint (150-300mls) of milk.
3. Reheat gently to boiling point.
4. Simmer for 2 minutes.
5. Check seasoning.
6. Add a swirl of cream or crème fraiche and a little chopped parsley for colour.

Liz Milton