There’s nothing more inviting than a good bowl of homemade soup after a long day out in the cold. The ultimate warm me up comfort food! One of my favorite gourmet soups is Cream of Morel Mushroom – permitting my freezer still holds some morels from the previous spring.
It’s a simplistic soup that lets the morels take front and center stage. The rich flavor from that morel mushrooms compliments the rich cream base with just some basic spices. When it comes to other mushrooms that are often found in this soup, morels are king if you can find them. Let’s just say last spring was very good to me and I came across a boat load of morels while I was out chasing turkeys here in Wisconsin.
While there are many debates as to how to preserve morels, I find a simple wash, dry, and tossed in a zip lock freezer bag works just fine for this recipe. Sure the mushrooms don’t have the same firm consistency as they did when you hit the jackpot back in spring, but hey, its soup….the consistency is going to be the same either way. So grab a couple of pounds of morels from the freezer (or get out looking this spring) and let’s get started.
Don’t have any mushrooms on hand? Find out Where and When to Look for Morels.
Cream of Morel Mushroom Soup
Prep time: 15 minutes Cooktime: 30 minutes Serves: 6
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of washed morels cut into small pieces about ¼”x ¼”
- 4 tablespoons butter (non salted)
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cloves of garlic minced
- ¾ cup onion minced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups half and half
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ tsp tarragon
- ½ tsp thyme
Directions
Step 1:
Using a 5-6 quart heavy based pot, sauté the mushrooms with the butter and olive oil until most of the water from the mushrooms has been released. This is very important as the morels retain quite a bit of water. Once browned, set aside 1 cup of the mushrooms for later.
Morels being sautéed in a cast iron kettle
Step 2:
Add the stock, onions, garlic, tarragon, and thyme to the pot. Bring to a simmer and cook uncovered for 10 minutes then remove from heat.
Step 3:
Using a blender, puree the soup until a smooth consistency.
Pureeing the morels to a creamy consistency
Step 4:
Return the soup to the pot and add the half and half along with the reserved mushrooms. Add salt and pepper to taste.
The soup after the half and half and extra mushrooms were added to the puree.
Step 5:
Serve with warm sourdough bread.
The aroma and taste is to die for.
