Happy New Year! My, it’s been a long time since I last posted. This whole working full time with a baby thing has been a little more time consuming than I thought it would be. Oh, and we moved, so that took up some time, too. Now that things have settled down, I’m back.
Since it’s been snowing all day, and I haven’t left the house, I decided to get cooking! Snow always makes me feel like eating a nice warm bowl of soup, so that’s what I made. I haven’t made this soup before, but today seemed like a good time to experiment with something new. I’m glad I did, because this was pretty good! Maybe because it has half and half in it, something that I generally don’t even keep in the house. This recipe makes two bowls of soup, but it could easily be doubled or tripled to suit your needs. There were only two of us eating today, but we easily could have finished off a double-batch.
Don’t be turned off by the seemingly long prep and cook time. Once you chop up the vegetables, the rest is a cinch and requires minimal attention.
Also, I know that a real roux is made with butter and flour, but I took a little short cut using oil. I wanted to thicken the soup with flour, and you can’t just add flour to hot soup unless you want a lot of lumps. So, rather than mashing butter into flour in a bowl (seems annoying), I just used canola oil. It worked out pretty well. If you have another idea, by all means, go for it.
Finely dice celery.
Mince garlic…a lot of garlic.
Finely dice some onions.
Slice crimini mushrooms.
Melt some butter in a pot, and then add all of the above ingredients. Stir. After they’ve started cooking down, add salt and pepper.
When the vegetables have cooked a little bit, add a pinch of rosemary and a can of chicken broth, stir, then simmer.
Add some cream or half and half. Stir together, and simmer again.
Make a “roux” with some oil and flour. Stir it into the soup, and simmer again until thickened.
It’s done! Serve with some big homemade croutons.
Cream of Mushroom Soup
Serves 2
Prep time: about 20 minutes
Cook time: about 40 minutes
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1-2 tablespoons celery, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, finely diced
10 oz (1 package) crimini mushrooms, sliced
a pinch of dried rosemary
1 14.5 oz can chicken broth
1/2 cup half and half (can substitute cream)
1 tablespoon oil (canola, vegetable, or olive)
1 tablespoon flour
salt and pepper
Homemade croutons (see below)
Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat. Add the celery, garlic, onion, and mushrooms, and stir. Sauté for 5 minutes, and then season with a little salt and pepper. Add the rosemary and chicken broth, and stir. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer over medium-low. Simmer for 20-30 minutes. Add the half and half, and stir. In a small bowl, combine the oil and flour, and slowly stir it into the soup. Simmer for another 10 minutes or so until slightly thickened. Taste, and season with additional salt and pepper if needed. Top with big toasty croutons, if desired.
For croutons: Thickly slice french bread, and cut each slice into quarters. Bake on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees until golden brown, about 10 minutes (keep peeking, you don’t want them to burn).
Change it up:
- Omit celery. It’s not really necessary
- Add another vegetable that you like
- Use cream, or whole milk, instead of half and half
- Use cornstarch in water instead of flour in oil to thicken
- Double, triple, or quadruple the recipe.
Yay! You're back!!
Just for you 🙂