Cream of Mushroom Soup with Truffles

Surprise, surprise we had truffles again for dinner. I know, poor us right? Like I said a few days ago when “one has truffles, one eats truffles”. I sure will miss them when they are gone.

I wanted to make something different with the truffles tonight and mushroom soup came to mind. I knew the truffles would make an excellent topping. What I didn’t know was that the soup itself would turn out so fantastic. This soup is rich and creamy but nowhere near as fattening as a dairy cream based soup. The texture is thick, but not in a fatty artery clogging way. I will definitely be using the “cream base” in this recipe again. Once the sauce cooks a few minutes the oat taste disappears and soup thickens almost like magic. Make certain to stir often, as this soup will try to stick to the bottom of the pan as it cooks.

I added a little nutmeg to the base not for an obvious nutmeg flavor but to add a complexity to the flavor. If you have sherry in the house you can eliminate the pinot and swap it for ½ cup of water and ½ cup of sherry. That would also be great, but I was out of sherry last night. Here is what I made.

Cream of Mushroom Soup with Truffles
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 cup dried mixed mushrooms
4 cups water
½ cup raw cashews
1 cup water
½ cup dry oatmeal, ground
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon onion flakes
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup pinot grigio
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pinch nutmeg
1 tablespoon reduced fat tofu sour cream, for garnish
1 tablespoon vegan demi glace, for garnish
truffle, shaved, for garnish

Directions:

Combine the mushrooms and water in a large microwave safe bowl and heat for a few minutes until the water is hot. Allow the mushrooms to sit in the water for at least 30 minutes to soften.

While the mushrooms are soaking cover the raw cashews with water and allow them to soak.

When the mushrooms are soft pour the mushrooms and soaking liquid through a fine sieve lined with cheesecloth and save the water to make the sauce. Chop the mushrooms into bite sized pieces that will easily fit on a spoon and reserve.

When the mushrooms are soft drain the cashews of the soaking water for the next step in the recipe.

Grind the oatmeal in your blender. Add the cashews and a cup of the mushrooms soaking liquid. Process until smooth.

Place the oatmeal and cashew mixture in a pot and add the remaining ingredients, except the garnish (tofu sour cream, vegan demi and truffles). Heat the soup until it begins to thicken and is hot. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as desired.

To serve, top the soup with tofu sour cream and vegan demi by placing both in a squeeze bottle and squirting on top the soup. Finish with fresh shaved truffles. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 410.2
Calories From Fat (28%) - 116.25

Total Fat - 13.13g
Saturated Fat - 2.08g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 690.89mg
Potassium - 674.24mg
Total Carbohydrates - 42.9g
Fiber - 6.31g
Sugar - 3.04g
Protein - 9.94g

Comments:

I knew this was good when the only thing my husband could say was “wow, this really is amazing”. Dan is not prone to being overly enthusiastic about my food so I knew this was a winner.

This is definitely a soup I will be making again truffles or not. I was very pleased with both the taste and texture of this soup. Additionally, each serving of soup contained 45mg of calcium, 290mg of phosphorus, 130mg of magnesium and 22mcg of selenium. Considering there aren’t a lot of veggies in this soup that isn’t too bad.

Unrelated note:

I will get the Egyptian breakfast bean recipe posted tomorrow something just as soon as I get a nice picture and finish writing the directions.