Sourcing Comfort In Old Favourites.

When you work in an area like mine that’s surrounded by places offering really good food, it can admittedly be a bit of a challenge to decide what to have for lunch on a daily basis (not that I’m complaining).

Lucky for me though, I’ve culled through quite a few of those said places in the last twoish years since I’ve joined the corporate world and firmed up a list of my favourite lunch places; places I know I can head to and be instantly comforted with a warm, delicious meal even on the hardest of work days.

That list does run a little long- I did mention my workplace is surrounded with really good food right?- and varies from Japanese to Italian to (really delicious) hawker fares. And in that list is a particular salad bar that’s one of my absolute favourite places to have lunch, just a stone’s throw from my office.

Now, I’ve been heading to this salad bar for quite a while now to get my weekly fix of salad- you get to customize a huge bowl of salad from scratch with a whole array of seriously fresh ingredients and salad dressing which is perfect for someone as picky about what she eats as I am- and have always walked away feeling completely nourished and revitalized. So when they introduced soup as part of their menu some months ago, it came as no surprise to me that their soups were just as delicious and soul satisfying as their salads. So much so in fact that I had to tweet Philippe, the owner of Fresh Plus, to rave about their mushroom soup.

So when I recently caught an episode of Ina Garten cooking a pot of mixed mushroom soup, I just knew I had to see if it could match up the mushroom soup I couldn’t get enough of.

Unsurprisingly, Ina Garten didn’t let me down. While the act of making the soup was deeply therapeutic with all the sauteeing and stirring, the soup, even without an ounce of cream or milk, was rich and full of savoury earthy flavour.

Served with slices of garlic bread crisp and still warm from the oven, this made for one hearty and truly satisfying meal that had both the boyfriend and baby sister lapping it up.

Now, Fresh Plus might have me charmed with its amazing salads and soups but it sure does give me a great amount of comfort to know that I can now have my comfort-in-a-bowl mushroom soup even way past my lunch hour.

(A quick, small disclaimer: I am on friendly terms with Philippe but have no affiliations with Fresh Plus otherwise. I just really really like their food I guess and as always, have to rave about anything I love to anyone who would listen )

Mixed Mushroom Soup [adapted from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa at Home show]

Note: As mentioned earlier, the original recipe called for cream which I omitted and didn’t feel like the soup was lacking anything in richness. Also, the original recipe served the mushrooms sliced (i.e omitting step 6) but I chose to blitz the mushrooms roughly because I prefer to drink, and not eat, my mushroom soup. I know the recipe does seem like quite a bit of work but it really is just a whole lot of sauteing and stirring. I suppose if you really wanted to, you could skip making the mushroom stock and just substitute with store-bought vegetable or chicken stock but make the mushroom stock if you have the time- it’s what seriously gives the soup that incredibly earthy and savoury flavour that makes it so, so good.

Ingredients
500g mixed mushrooms (I used a mixture of shiitake, white button, swiss browns and portobellos)
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1/2 head garlic, peeled and minced
2 tsp minced thyme leaves, divided
2 leeks, leaves removed and chopped
1/4 cup plain flour
1 cup dry white wine
Sea Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Wipe the mushrooms with a dry paper towel. Separate the stems from the caps, trimming off any bad parts. Coarsely chop the stems. Slice the caps in 1/2 inch thick and set them aside.
2. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the mushroom stems, onion, carrots, 1 tsp of thyme leaves, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
3. Add 6 cups of water and bring to boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Strain the stock, reserving the liquid which should come up to about 4 1/2 cups of stock.
4. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in another large pot over medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic and cook for about 10 minutes or until the leeks are starting to brown. Add the sliced mushroom caps and cook until they are tender and browned. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute.
5. Add the white wine, scrapping the bottom of the pot. Add the mushroom stock, minced thyme leaves, 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. Bring the soup to a boil then reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.
6. Using a food processor, blitz the soup in batches. Return the soup back onto the stove and heat through. Stir some butter or cream in, if desired, and serve hot. Serves 6

Posted by thecoffeesnob on November 5, 2011

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