Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup with not so vegan herb bread
Do you have things in your head like the look of your dream house? Your dream wedding dress? Do you have the names of your nonexistent children all picked out?
I dont have that. Like at all.
Sometimes I feel like theres a strange void in my girlbrain. But I dunno.
I do have things in my head like my dream pancake breakfast. My dream shopping website. My dream kitteh. And now my dream winter soup.
So. At least theres that.
I didnt even like mushroom until a few years ago. now here I am cooking down a whole pot of them.
Theyre so pretty. and theyre about to turn into a delicious brown gray mush.
Thi s soup is creamy but vegan. Get with the program.
I blended raw cashews with water creating a rad Cashew Cream.
See whats happening here? Divine.
Blended cashews help create a creamy, but still earthy soup. The soup doesnt taste like mushroom and cashews blended up. Nope. The cashews disappear and just add a creaminess and very subtle sweetness.
The soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce in the soup really compliment the earthiness of the mushrooms. This soup is very simple and I think its just delicious.
Soup sucks without bread. I mean come on.
Because Im not actually vegan, I made a ridiculous herby garlic bread to go with my perfectly vegan soup.
So wrong. I know.
It was crazy good and I dont feel bad at all.
Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup with Cashew Cream
Makes about 6 cups
For the Soup:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 tablespoons soy sauce (I used Braggs Amino Acids)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (vegan please)
about 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
3 cups vegetable broth
salt to taste
For the Cashew Cream:
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup water
In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions to hot oil and saute until translucent and slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, stir, and cook for 1 minute more. Add the mushrooms, soy sauce andWorcestershire sauce and cook until mushrooms are cooked and broken down, about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add cracked pepper and vegetable stock and cook at a simmer until mushrooms are completely soft. This took me about 10 to 15 minutes.
While the soup simmers, prepare the cashew cream. In a blender, combine raw cashews and water. Blend on high until smooth. Pour into a measuring cup and set aside. Dont worry about washing the blender were going to use it to blend the soup.
When mushrooms are cooked through, add about one third of the soup to the blender. Hot soup rises high in the blender so definitely be careful how high you fill the blender. Blend soup on low, increasing the speed to high, until no large mushroom chunks remain. Pour blended soup into a clean pot or large bowl. Blend the remaining soup in batches.
Add the cashew cream to the blended soup and stir to incorporate.
Place a fine mesh strainer over the pot that you cooked the soup in. In batches, pour the blended soup into the fine mesh strainer and work the soup through the strainer with a rubber spatula. Dont use a wooden spoon you could get splinters in your soup seriously. Heat and serve the strained soup. Or place in a freezer safe container for a few weeks down the road.
Not So Vegan Herb Bread
1 fresh baguette
3 tablespoons unsalted ! butter, softened
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped parsley
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste.
Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.
On a clean cutting board, use a fork to mash together softened butter, garlic, and chopped parsley. Once incorporated, drizzle the olive oil over the butter mixture and work in the olive oil. Add the Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and incorporate with the fork.
Slice baguette into thick slices, not slicing all the way through the loaf, but keeping the slices connected. Spread parsley butter in between bread slices. Wrap baguette in foil and bake for 10 minutes, or until butter is melted and fragrant.
Remove from the oven and serve immediately.
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