When the weather starts to cool down, this simple and satisfying mushroom soup can be made with any mushroom you like.
Originally Posted: Oct. 13, 2024
Total Time: 1 hour (1.5 hours including roasting garlic)
Jump to RecipeIntro
Early Enjoyment of Mushrooms
I’ve been a huge fan of mushrooms since childhood. I think the first thing I enjoyed them on was leftover pizza from a friend’s fridge. Later, my mom started cooking some amazing chicken dishes with a very basic mushroom or truffle gravy.
Deeper Interest
Fast forward to college and I became fascinated with mushrooms’ life cycles and potential uses after watching a TED Talk with Paul Stamets. I began growing oyster mushrooms from kits.
Finding Mushroom Recipes
Around the time I was 24, I began cooking versions of my mom’s recipes, stuffed mushroom recipes I found online, sauteing them and putting them on burgers. My mom and I even improved on one of her family recipes for pot roast with mushroom gravy, only we made the mushroom gravy from scratch instead of from a can.
Finding Soups
In my search for a mushroom soup recipe, I found a long list of delicious looking ones on Pinterest, including ones with cheese, ones with bacon, ones with vegetables, the classic Hungarian version.
Finally, I found this one from Peace, Love, and Low Carb and started making my own spin on it. The main way I did this was to use some fancy-ass rare mushrooms that I found in a grocery store just by luck: a blend of chanterelles and lobster mushrooms. I still haven’t found fresh lobster mushrooms since.
Using a rare mushroom and about three times the roasted garlic (at least in that first attempt) made one of the most delicious soups I’ve ever had. Since then, I’ve come up with a lot of ways to do as much prep as possible before hand, to cut down on cooking time.
I also decided that I wanted to do a little experiment, and make the exact same mushroom soup with 9 or 10 different mushrooms to find which one makes the ultimate mushroom soup.
I also wanted to log each one’s relative price (compare different stores, etc) and each one’s relative effort (in cases where I decided to grow a given mushroom from a kit or from a clone).
Mushrooms and Health
A brief search online brings up lists of mushrooms purported health benefits, such as this article from the Mayo Clinic or this one from WebMD.
Mushrooms can aid in health in the following ways:
- Cancer prevention
- Brain health
- Vitamins B, D, and others
- Micronutrients
- Calcium & potassium
- Cholesterol control
- Lower blood pressure
- Boost immune system
- and the list goes on
For me, I was mainly interested in the cholesterol benefits. But I also just plain love mushrooms.
Ingredients
Note: I like to prep as many ingredients for recipes like this ahead of time as possible. For this one, that mostly means pre-cutting and freezing the mirepoix mixture, and pre-cooking and freezing the mushrooms.
This is one of the best ways to preserve mushrooms, but it’s also helpful for mushrooms that are hard to find in large amounts, where you may need to “save up” on a rare mushroom.
Ingredients List
- 12 – 16 oz Mushrooms of your choice
- Mirepoix
- 1 small Onion, 2 Celery stocks, 2 Carrots
- 1 – 3 bulb Roasted Garlic
- If you have loose garlic cloves, about 10 cloves can be roasted the same way as a full garlic bulb
- 1 Tbsp Butter
- 2 Tbsp chopped Parsley
- 1 tsp Dried Thyme, or 1 Tbsp chopped Fresh Thyme
- 1 tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Black Pepper
- 4-½ cups Chicken Stock
- Plus some more stock or water to thin out the soup at the end, if necessary
- ½ cup Heavy Cream
- More salt and pepper at the end, to taste
- (Optional) A splash of Sherry or White Wine
- Bacon bits (from about 8 – 12 slices) and more chopped parsley, for garnish
- Sometimes I’ll pre-slice raw bacon into “bits” and vacuum seal and freeze it to cook later, same as the mirepoix and mushrooms.
Equipment
- Soup pot or Dutch oven
- Immersion blender and/or regular blender
- I like starting with an immersion blender and then pouring the soup into my Ninja blender.
Written Instructions
Total Time: 1 hour (1.5 hours including roasting garlic)
Roasted Garlic & Bacon Bits
Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Cut garlic bulbs in half along their equator, then place each half into a small ‘boat’ of aluminum foil. Drizzle each with oil and add salt and pepper, then roast for 30 to 40 minutes. Allow garlic to cool before squeezing cloves out.
While garlic is roasting, slice 8 – 12 bacon slices into bits and fry in a pan until crispy. Alternatively, you could roast the garlic and make the bacon bits ahead of time.
Sauté Mirepoix & Mushrooms
Heat butter in a stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, then add the mirepoix mixture and sauté until soft, about 5 or 6 minutes. If you feel the need, add a drizzle of oil to coat the vegetables.
Add mushrooms, salt, pepper, thyme, and parsley and sauté until the mushrooms are soft, about 5 or 6 minutes. Again, you can add a drizzle of oil to coat if you feel the need. Once cooked, reserve a few spoonfuls of the mushroom and vegetable mixture to use as a garnish later.
At this point (and this is optional), you could add a splash of nice white wine or sherry. In my case, I like to add some homebrewed Honey-Fermented Garlic Mead or Mushroom-Garlic Mead, but I’ll admit not everyone has the time or motivation to make massive batches of mead.
Adding Stock & Simmering Soup
Add roasted garlic and chicken stock, then bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer the soup for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally so nothing burns on the bottom.
At the end of simmering, add cream. Alternatively, if you want to freeze the soup, maybe don’t add the cream until after thawing and reheating it (though you could also get a split frozen-and-thawed cream to come back together with a bit of roux sometimes).
Blending Soup
Use an immersion blender and/or a regular blender and blend soup until smooth. Personally, I like to start with an immersion blender, then pour the partially smooth soup into a regular blender to get it even smoother. Work in batches if you need to, and run on low to start; overfilling a blender with hot liquid can be dangerous.
Pour soup back into pot and add more salt and pepper to taste. Serve garnished with reserved mushrooms and veggies, bacon bits, and chopped parsley.
Mushroom Soup
Equipment
- 1 Soup pot
- 1 Immersion blender and/or regular blender I like using one followed by the other
Ingredients
- 12 – 16 oz Mushrooms
Mirepoix
- 1 small Onion or 1/2 large onion
- 2 Carrots
- 2 Celery Stalks
Everything Else
- 1 – 3 bulbs Garlic
- 1 Tbsp Butter
- 2 Tbsp Parsley chopped
- 1 tsp Thyme (dried) or 1 Tbsp fresh chopped Thyme
- 1 tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Black Pepper
- 4-½ cups Chicken Stock
- ½ cup Heavy Cream
- Salt & Pepper, to taste after blending
- 1 splash Sherry or White Wine
Garnish
- Bacon Bits
- Fresh Parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Cut garlic bulb on its equator (or take 10 loose garlic cloves), wrap in foil with a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast in preheated oven for 30to 40 minutes. Allow to cool before squeezing garlic cloves out.
- While garlic is roasting, slice 8 – 12 bacon slices into bits and fry in a pan until crispy. Alternatively, roast the garlic and make the bacon bits ahead of time.
- Melt butter in a stock pot or Dutch oven. Add mirepoix mixture and sauté until soft,about 5 or 6 minutes.
- Add sliced mushrooms, salt, pepper, thyme, and parsley and sauté until the mushrooms are soft (maybe less time if you’ve pre-cooked the mushrooms). Once cooked,reserve a few spoonfuls of the mushrooms and veggies.
- (Optional) Add a splash of white wine or sherry.
- Add roasted garlic and chicken stock to the pot. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer, cooking for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the cream. Alternatively, if you plan on freezing the soup, maybe don’t add it until soup has been thawed and reheated, or else you could bring a split frozen-and-thawed cream back together with a roux sometimes.
- Use immersion blender and/or regular blender to blend the soup until smooth. If using regular blender, work in batches to avoid overfilling, and start the blender off with small pulses or on low.
- Return blended soup to pot and add more salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve garnished with reserved mushrooms and veggies, bacon bits, and chopped parsley.
Mushroom Choice
When I first started working on the recipe that this one is based on, I was lucky enough to stumble upon both chanterelles and lobster mushrooms. This made for an incredibly flavorful soup.
Eventually I decided to cook multiple versions of the soup, each with a different mushroom so I could decide on a favorite. Once I have all of them cooked and frozen in one-cup portions, I plan on having reheated bowls of each soup side by side so I can have other people test them out and pick a favorite.
I also tried to log the price per pound of each mushroom as well as how many caps made up a pound, for the benefit of readers.
Note: I’ve used 1lb. and 1oz portions for the majority of these comparisons, so I’ll just put the metric conversions here instead of in every entry below.
- 1 lb. is 453.6g
- 1oz is 28.35g
Lobster Mushroom & Chanterelle Soup
(Finished)
When I first started working on the recipe that this one is based on, I was lucky enough to stumble upon both chanterelles and lobster mushrooms. This made for an incredibly flavorful soup.
I mainly include it here because it was the first one that I made. I think I also doubled or tripled the roasted garlic for this one. Based on my later experiment with doing a straight chanterelle soup, I’d guess that the majority of the mushroom flavor came from the lobster mushrooms.
Cost and Weights
I also made this soup before I decided on the full soup experiment, so I didn’t log the price that I found the lobster mushrooms or chanterelles at the time. If I were to attempt to guess, I’d say the fresh lobster mushrooms were priced at $34.99/lb. and the chanterelles were probably $29.99/lb. at Safeway at this time.
Tasting Notes
Delicious and lobster-y. The lobster mushrooms give this soup most of its flavor, and they really live up to their name.
Button Mushroom Soup
(Planned)
Among the easiest mushrooms to find (at least in the US), it’s also one of the cheaper mushrooms, these are the younger version of the cremini and portobello mushroom. They have a stereotypically mushroom-y taste and scent, though not as strongly as creminis or portobellos.
Cost and Weights
They were priced at $4.99/lb. from QFC, and 7 large caps made up 1 pound. Before pre-cooking, the mushrooms weighed 1.20 lbs. before removing the stems, 1.00 lb. after removing the stems, and 12.8oz after pre-cooking.
Tasting Notes
I haven’t cooked this soup yet.
Chanterelle Mushroom Soup
(Finished)
While this one made for a good experiment, I think that making a soup like this with chanterelles alone is a waste of chanterelles. Their delicate flavor gets drowned out by the other ingredients, so I prefer to save them for a nice pasta dish or a chicken dish.
Because of this, cooking a soup of just chanterelles makes for a soup that’s essentially a thicker chicken soup.
Cost and Weights
I’ve found chanterelles at various stores priced at $13.99/lb. at Costco, between $19.99/lb. and $29.99/lb. at PCC, and $34.99/lb. at Safeway, and I’d say about 16 caps makes up 1 pound. Costco definitely has the best prices, and their pre-packaged ones weigh in almost perfectly to 1 pound.
I’ve also had .95lb. cook down to 14.4oz, and several of the Costco 1lb. packages cook down to between 9.6oz and 9.8oz. I think the differences mainly have to do with how dried out the mushrooms become before cooking, and how much moisture they give up or soak in.
Tasting Notes
More chicken-y and maybe a little peppery (chanterelles are known for a peppery taste, and I think their name in German (“Pfifferling”) reflects this if I remember correctly). Definitely the thinnest of the mushroom soups, so it either needs a lot more mushrooms than the other batches or it needs to be a blend. Still a good flavor.
Cremini Mushroom Soup
(Planned)
Also known as “baby portobello” or “baby bella”, these mushrooms are the slightly older version of the button mushroom, and both are the younger version of the portobello. Like portobellos, they have a very mushroom-y flavor and scent.
Cost and Weights
These cost me $4.99/lb. (same as the button mushrooms), and I think I got them at QFC. About 20 caps makes up 1 pound.
Tasting Notes
I haven’t cooked this one yet.
Lion’s Mane Soup
(Finished)
As soon as I started the pre-cooking process on a bunch of diced lion’s mane, I decided they were one of my favorite mushrooms of all time just based on the smell. I’ve seen people online use them to make mock crab cakes and mock steak, and someday I’ll try making those. But for now, soup.
Cost and Weights
I wasn’t sure that I would be able to find lion’s mane in any stores near me, so I bought a mushroom kit on Amazon from North Spore and got multiple flushes. The first flush was 9.6oz and the second was 3.0oz for a total of 12.6oz before cooking. The 9.6oz reduced to 8.8oz after cooking, but the 3.0oz went up to 3.7oz; go figure.
Then I found them for sale in Whole Food’s for $9.99 for 8oz, or $19.98/lb. However, when I weighed the package I bought, it weighed closer to 6.1oz, which cooked down to 5.7oz.
Tasting Notes
This was an incredibly delicious soup, though less stereotypically mushroom-y than portobello or the younger agaricus mushrooms.
Lobster Mushroom Soup
(Planned)
This mushroom is very hard to find fresh, so if you see it in a store or at a farmer’s market, you need to get it and try it. However, rather than try and luck out by finding this one at the store again, I found a website where people sell food items that they’ve foraged, called foraged.com.
Back when I made my initial lobster mushroom and chanterelle soup, it turns out the majority of the flavor was coming from the lobster mushroom. I can’t wait to try this one.
Cost and Weights
At the time of writing this, a pound of dried lobster mushrooms shipped from Eugene, Oregon goes for $80/lb. However, note that a quick search online says that 3oz of rehydrated dried mushrooms can be used in place of 1 pound of fresh.
Since I have 1 pound of dried mushrooms, that’s similar to having slightly more than 5 pounds of lobster mushrooms that I can use for various recipes. That works out to $16/lb. for these.
Tasting Notes
I haven’t cooked this one yet.
Morel Soup
(Planned)
This is another mushroom that’s hard to find fresh. The morel can only really be foraged, and it tends to spring up after forest fires.
Cost and Weights
I found a container of dried morels on Amazon for $13.99 for 1oz, which comes to $41.97 for 3oz which equates to 1 pound of fresh. Going this route winds up being the most expensive option of all the mushrooms here.
Note: There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence that one shouldn’t have morels and drink alcohol at the same time. Does something to the liver, supposedly.
Tasting Notes
I haven’t cooked this one yet.
Oyster Mushroom Soup
(Planned)
This is a mushroom I’ve had a lot of experience growing from kits in the past. If you go the kit route, you’ll get much bigger caps than the picked-over choices you’ll find at a grocery store, and that’s if and when your grocery store even carries them.
Cost and Weights
A pink oyster mushroom kit (North Spore, purchased on Amazon) goes for $34.99, and you can get multiple flushes of mushrooms over a few weeks. My first flush gave me 7.4oz, which became 8.4oz after cooking.
Tasting Notes
I haven’t cooked this one yet.
Portobello Mushroom Soup
(Finished)
The oldest phase of the button to cremini to portobello life cycle, this also has the most mushroom-y flavor and scent of the three.
Cost and Weights
I found these at the grocery store for $5.99/lb., and it took about 5 caps to make up 1 pound. It cooked down to 12.3oz.
Tasting Notes
Mushroom-y, as one would expect. It’s also the easiest one to make, since it takes less mushroom caps to make up the full amount, and there’s less slicing.
Shiitake Mushroom Soup
(Finished)
This is possibly the most mushroom-y of all the soups here. It makes sense that they pack such a flavor punch because they’re traditionally used to add an extra umami flavor to soups and stocks such as dashi.
Cost and Weights
I found these at the grocery store for $5.99/lb., and it took about 5 caps to make up 1 pound.
Tasting Notes
Very mushroom-y, very umami. Delicious and definitely worth paying the extra dollar compared to button or cremini mushrooms.