Mushroom Soup

I remember the times when mushroom soup used to always come from the can. I used to think Campbell's mushroom soup was a treat! I'd always be excited to have mushroom soup.

But this my friends, is totally different from the canned stuff. Nothing beats the fresh mushroom soup with bits of mushroom you can feel and taste. And get this, it's so easy to make! Don't let the steps intimidate you. I assure you that it's not that hard at all. When the market is selling mushrooms at $2 a bag, buy one and give it a try!

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp oil
• 5 large cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• 1 large onion (finely chopped)
• 600g of button mushrooms (roughly chopped) you could use different types of mushrooms to have a more complexed mushroom flavour if you like
• 1 chicken/ vegetable stock cube 
• 3 tbsp of flour
• 300ml of boiling water
• 200ml of cream
• salt and black pepper to taste
• Hand blender or a normal blender

Steps:

1. Add the oil and butter into the pan and sauté the onions and garlic till fragrant. 
2. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 10 minutes.
3. Next, add the flour and cook it out a little. You'll realize the liquids will start to reduce as the flour will absorb it.
4. Dissolve the stock cube into the boiling water and add to the mushrooms.
5. Let the mixture simmer for 20 minutes or so on a medium heat. The liquid will slowly reduce. 
6. Once the liquid has reduced to 3/4, add the cream and let it simmer for another 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
7. Once it has simmered, you can blend the mixture to as smooth as you want. Some of you might like their mushroom soup with a little texture so don't over blend it. And do be careful when using a blender for the hot liquid. Read the instructions that come with your blender to prevent any accidents. We don't want you to get hurt! So be very very careful! 
8. Once you've blended the soup to the consistency that you like, season it with salt and pepper. If the soup turns out too watery just put it back on the heat and reduce it a little bit more. 

You can serve it with some extra cream, croutons or some chopped up parsley if you have some. We paired our mushroom soup with a good ol' grilled cheese sandwich. It might have been a mistake though as it was a tad too rich with the creamy soup. But plain croutons go great with the soup! 

If you do try this recipe out, let us know how it goes :) We're curious to know! You can even share the picture with us!