Creamy Mushroom Soup

By Foodiewife

Since this soup is pureed, don’t waste time slicing mushrooms. Just break them into rough pieces with your hands. Use the blender, not the food processor, for the smoothest possible soup. You can use brandy or dry sherry in place of the Madeira. Be sure to use low-sodium beef broth: Pacific beef broth is the test kitchen’s top-rated brand.

Test Kitchen Discoveries

* Of all the mushroom varieties, we settled on white or cremini mushrooms for this recipe. They are readily available and have a good meaty flavor.
* What might appear to be more mushrooms than you could ever possibly need will reduce down to a fraction of its bulk once cooked. As they cook down, the flavor of the mushrooms is concentrated which makes for a rich, flavorful soup.
* Since your mushrooms will make their way to the blender in the end, there is no need to waste time slicing and chopping them into equal pieces. It is fine to break them up with your hands.
* The extra dose of mushrooms added enough bulk to our soup that we could eliminate flour as a thickening agent. A nice benefit, as flour made the soup pasty.
* Swapping out onions in favor of leeks resulted in the perfect velvety texture we were looking for.
* To accentuate the meatiness of the mushrooms, we used beef broth instead of chicken. We also reduced the cream, as too much of it masked all the other flavors.

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 pounds white or cremini mushrooms , broken into rough pieces (see note)
• 2 leeks , white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise and chopped (see Prepping and Washing Leeks, related)
• Salt and pepper
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
• 5 cups low-sodium beef broth (see note)
• 1/2 cup Madeira (see note), plus additional for serving
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation

Step 1

1. COOK MUSHROOMS Melt butter in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until butter is golden brown and has a nutty aroma, about 3 minutes. Add mushrooms, leeks, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook, covered, until mushrooms release their liquid, about 5 minutes. Remove lid and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid has evaporated, about 15 minutes. Remove 2/3 cup mushroom mixture, chop fine, and reserve.

2. SIMMER SOUP Add garlic and thyme to pot with remaining mushroom mixture and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in broth and Madeira and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until mushrooms and leeks are completely tender, about 20 minutes.

3. FINISH SOUP Puree soup in blender in batches until smooth. Return pureed soup to pot, stir in cream, lemon juice, and chopped mushrooms and return to simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Serve, drizzling individual portions with additional Madeira.