Wild Mushroom Soup

Growing up in Brazil I did not have access to fresh wild mushrooms. I ate them for the first time here in U.S. and it was obviously here that I had my first mushroom soup. Unfortunately most mushroom soups I had tried so far were way too creamy for me. You know when a soup has so much cream it is hard to eat even half of it?

A few weeks ago, on a very cold day, I was craving Mushroom soup - but without all the cream! So I decided to make one at home. I searched the internet and found a recipe on FineCooking.com that looked pretty good! It only asks for 1/4 cup of half-and-hlaf. I used the fat free version and I am sure that plain greek yogurt would work great too. The addition of sherry and soy sauce at the end brings the soup together and should not be omitted, in my opinion.This soup was so delicious I decided to share it here. I hope you try it!

p.s.: As you can see from the photo above, I chopped my mushrooms really small. I actually used a food processor and accidentally chopped them too small. Next time I will slice them as asked for on the recipe.

Wild Mushroom Soup
recipe from magazine Fine Cooking

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced or crushed
3/4 lb. fresh wild mushrooms, wiped clean (steams removed from shiitakes), and thinly sliced to yield about 4 1/2 cups). I used shiitake and baby bella.
2 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 cups low sodium chicken stock or vegetable broth
1/4 cup half-and-half
3 tablespoons dry sherry
1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

Directions:
Melt butter and olive oil in a 5-qt. or large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until it's beginning to brown., about 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the mushroom, 2 Tbs. of the thyme, and 1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper; cook mushrooms until they become limp, 2 to 4 minutes.

Add broth, scraping up any browned bits in the pot with a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil over hight heat, reduce the heat to maintain a simmer, and cook until the mushrooms are tender, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Tranfer about half of the soup to a stand blender and process until smooth. return the mixture to the pot and stir in the hal-andhal, sherry, and soy douce. Add more salt and pepper to taste, if needed, and reheat. Garnish each serving with a small pinch of the remaining 1 tsp. thyme.