Creamy Wild Mushroom Soup

Whole foods had a bunch of local fresh mushrooms on sale, and they just looked way too good to pass up.
I had an amazing mushroom soup a few weeks ago, so this was my inspiration.

Mushrooms are so good for you too!
I found some great info on Dr. Mercola's page explaining a bit.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/12/31/organic-mushrooms-for-immune-support.aspx?np=true

By Dr. Mercola

Some of the most potent immunosupportive agents come from mushrooms, and science is just beginning to tap into this vast natural medicine warehouse.

There are mushrooms that kill viruses, mushrooms that kill bacteria, and even mushrooms that kill yeast—which may surprise you, given they're both fungi.

Some mushrooms destroy cancer cells, and others facilitate nerve regeneration.

Fungi are incredibly resilient, even surviving radioactivity.

They can actually harness radiation to thrive, as was found by a robot sent to map the inside of the entombed Chernobyl nuclear reactor in 1999.

The robot found a hardy fungus chowing down on 200 tons of melted radioactive fuel.

In addition to bringing us nutrition and powerful medicine, mushrooms offer great benefits for the planet.

You may be surprised to learn that mushrooms have the following green applications:

• Eradication of carpenter ants by producing a pesticide that tricks the ants into eating it
• Producing a low carbon footprint type of ethanol
• Breaking down the neurotoxins in nerve gas
• Producing a fully compostable fungal-based packing material that could potentially replace plastics and styrofoam
• Bioremediation: Cleaning up waste from petroleum, toxic chemicals (PCBs, TNT), and bacteria such as E. coli

Of the 140,000 species of mushroom-forming fungi, science is familiar with only 10 percent, according to world-renown mycologist Paul Stamets in "The Most Powerful Medicine in Nature". About 100 species are being studied for their health-promoting benefits. Of those hundred, about a half dozen really stand out for their ability to deliver a tremendous boost to your immune system.  

Here is my recipe:


Creamy Wild Mushroom Soup


About 3 cups of sliced mushrooms ( I didn't measure, and it doesn't have to be exact). I used Cremini White Button, Shiitake, and dried Porcini

1.5 (1 Liter) boxes of chicken stock

3 tbs butter
1 TBS olive oil
2 TBS marcapone cheese
1/2 pint of heavy cream
1 onion chopped
1 clove of garlic chopped
2 sprigs tyme

Slice mushrooms 1/4 inch thick leaving stems to chop later.

Add mushrooms and onion to pan with the olive oil, and 2 TBS of butter. Reserve 2 cups of chicken stock. Sauté onions and mushrooms until brown scraping brown bits from bottom of the pan periodically with 2 cups of reserved stock chicken stock.
Cook about 15 min
Add the garlic until just brown.  You do not want to burn it.  Add a little more chicken stock to "deglaze" or scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. 
Add one box of stock and a whole sprigs of thyme and simmer on low scraping all brown bits.

Melt 1 TBS of butter and add 1 TBS of flour in a small bowl. Whisk until smooth. Gradually add about a cup of hot broth to incorporate. Add back to soup.

Meanwhile add 4-6 dried porcini to about 1.5 cups of stock. Cover and boil 10 min until liquid starts to evaporate. Pull mushrooms out, save liquid and add to the sauté pan with the mushrooms and onions. Roughly chop the porcini, add to soup.

Add salt and pepper to taste

Simmer at least an hour covered. Very low heat.

Add marcapone cheese. Reserve 1.5 cups soup and puree with an immersion blender or regular blender until smooth. Add back to soup

Slowly add cream, mix, and slowly bring the soup back up to temperature, and serve!

We ate it with a nice piece of sour dough bread. Yum!