Oven- Roasted Mushroom Soup

Recently, I've made the mushroom appetizer, the Coq au Zin, and now this soup. Clearly I enjoy mushrooms. Give me your Portabellos, Shanterelles or Porcinis... I'll happily eat them all. Luckily, my husband is equally happy with all things mushroom, and my son... well, he'll eat them only if they're pulverized and hidden inside of meatloaf. (I once made Mushroom Veggie Burgers made completely from chopped mushrooms. The recipe bragged that you could fool your family because they tasted just like meaty burgers. My son didn't quite buy it). I'm sure he'd like those meringue mushrooms though.

This week's mushroom madness involved Shiitakes and Criminis: Oven- Roasted Mushroom Soup. This ain't no cream-of-mushroom soup. It's a roasted mushroom soup... some creaminess as well as chunks of beloved, earthy mushrooms. Yes friends... this is a soup for mushroom-lovers only. The fun thing about this unusual soup recipe is that it's made entirely in the oven- no simmering on the stove.

Here's the How-To:

Find a large roasting pan (turkey sized), and toss 3 pounds of quartered mushrooms with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast the mushrooms in the oven for about 20 minutes. Add chopped shallots and roast slightly longer.

Dump in white wine, chicken broth, water and thyme and yes, you guessed it, return to the oven for a little more roasting.

Pour the soup into a serving bowl.

Scoop out a couple of ladlefuls of the soup (with some mushrooms in there too). This is the amount that you will puree- so you can choose to do it in the blender or you scoop it into a bowl and use your immersion blender. I got this doo-dad for Christmas from my wonderful nephew who is the executive chef here (love the blender, by the way).

Scrape the pureed mixture back into the soup bowl (however gross it may look).

Add just a smidgen of heavy cream, as well as a squeeze of lemon juice, & it's ready to serve.

When I roasted the mushrooms, I kept four of the shiitakes whole with the intention of using them for garnish- a little extra fresh thyme is thrown on there too.

You wouldn't see it on my blog here unless we loved it, and yes... we did. It's a pretty healthy soup too with just 2 Tbsp. of heavy cream in the whole soup. The chunks of mushrooms added a 'meatiness' to the soup. I served it as a side to Chicken with Lemon- Caper Sauce.

I guess I'll have to try making those meringue mushrooms sometime. They're awfully cute little buggers.

This recipe can be found HERE.