A few weeks ago, my sister and I were browsing recipe sites, looking for ideas for a snack to make, when I ran across cream of mushroom soup.  Boy did that bring back memories — and cravings! — so I’ve made a version we can have.  🙂

I like this soup best with butter and heavy cream, but it works just fine with palm shortening and cashew cream to make it dairy-free.  You can also use either white or green onion — I like green for the milder onion flavor, my sister likes white for the stronger.  So basically this soup has lots of options.  It’s quick and easy to make if you keep vegetable stock on hand (something I recommend, especially if you make your own to avoid soy and preservatives), which is good, because three people will eat one batch of soup in ten minutes flat.  🙂

Well, without further ado.

Paleo Cream of Mushroom Soup

Yield:  3-4 servings as a side or snack; 2 servings as a small meal

Ingredients:

• 2 T palm shortening (or butter, if you tolerate dairy)
• 8 oz mushrooms
• 3-4 green onions, or a small white onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp marjoram
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 cup cashew cream (or heavy cream, if you tolerate dairy)
• 2 T arrowroot powder
• 2 T cold water

Directions:

1.  In a large saucepan or skillet (I use a small wok!), melt the palm shortening (or butter) on medium-high heat.  While it melts, chop up your onion (and your mushrooms too if you want, though if they’re small enough to be bite-sized already you won’t need to).

2.  Sautee the mushrooms and onions, adding in the salt, marjoram, nutmeg, black pepper, and garlic powder as you work.  (I find adding them one at a time and stirring each one in separately actually makes a pretty decent timer for how long the mushrooms and onions take to cook, but you can certainly do them all at once at the start or end.)

3.  Pour the vegetable stock and cream into the pan and stir briefly to combine the liquids, leaving the heat on medium-high; let the soup heat to a simmer or near-simmer.

4.  While the soup heats up, in a ramekin or small mixing bowl, whisk together the arrowroot and cold water until it fully combines into a slurry.  (You’ll want to re-whisk it right before you add it to the soup, too, as it’ll separate slowly as it sits idle.)

5.  Once the soup’s nice and hot (nearly simmering or simmering, with plenty of steam coming off it), pour the cold slurry into the hot soup and stir constantly until it thickens.  This takes about 30 seconds — since overcooking arrowroot takes the thickening properties right back out of it, I like to set a timer, and pull the soup from the heat when it goes off!

6.  Soup’s on!  It’ll thicken more as it cools, of course, but no reason not to have some piping hot.  🙂

asdf