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Another lovely nutritional recipe from our Nutritionist, Nicky Seabrook
January 12th, 2022
The Real Mushroom Soup
(Recipe from Jamie Oliver)
I made this soup at the weekend for some friends and it got a good reception. It makes an ideal lunch on a cold January day. I couldn’t get wild mushrooms so I used a mix of field and chestnut mushrooms and these seemed to work just as well.
SERVES 6
Ingredients
A small handful of porcini or other dried mushrooms
Olive oil
6oog mixed wild mushrooms ( chanterelles, girolles, shitake, oyster )cleaned and sliced
2 cloves garlic
1 red onion peeled and finely chopped
A knob of butter
A handful of fresh thyme leaves
Sea salt and ground pepper
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
A handful of flat leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
2 tbsp mascarpone cheese
1 lemon
Optional: truffle oil
Method
Place the dried mushrooms in a small dish, add boiling water just to cover and leave to soak.
Get a large casserole type pan nice and hot, then add a good couple of lugs of olive oil and your fresh mushrooms. Stir around very quickly for a minute, then add your garlic, onion, butter and thyme and a small amount of seasoning.
After about a minute you’ll notice some moisture cooking out of the mushrooms and at this point add half of your dried mushrooms chopped up and the rest whole. Strain the soaking liquid to remove any grit and add it to the pan. Carry on cooking for about 20 minutes until most of the moisture disappears.
Add your stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes. I usually remove half the soup from the pan and whizz it up to a puree at this point, then pour it back in, adding the parsley and mascarpone and seasoning carefully to taste.
Jamie goes on to say there are a few things to remember when finishing it off. Mix together a pinch of salt and pepper with the zest of one lemon and the juice of half of it, then spoon a little of this into the middle of the soup. When you eat it stir it in and it gives a wonderful flavour. Other things you can consider are little slices of grilled crostini put into the bottom of the bowls before the soup is poured over. Or you could even sprinkle some fried mushrooms on top of the soup. If I was going to use truffle oil then I would use it on it’s own – a few drips on the top just before serving.
Nutrition Notes
For many years mushroom species have been recognized as having medicinal properties. They are one of the few plant sources of vitamin D and contain active compounds including beta – glucan which have a positive effect on the immune system. One of the ways in which they have a healthy effect on the body is by providing a source of prebiotics for the gut which encourages beneficial bacteria to grow.
