Creamy Mushroom Soup

One of the first posts I did on this blog was for a simple mushroom soup. The recipe I used today was different again to that one. It takes a little longer to make, but the result was a far more superior soup. A friend told me about Pinterest, I'm not going to start using it, as I think it will be quite adicitive. You create an online notice board to pin all your favourite things to from the internet, food, interior design, clothes etc.  You can browse the site without joining, which is where I came across this recipe. There are endless pinboards with images of food that people have come across on the internet. There is a link to where the image came from and I have discovered some wonderful food blogs this way. This was from a website called www.seasonwithspice.com I used a mug to measure the milk, cream and stock, I used single cream, but for a healthier option don't add as much, or add more milk instead of cream.


Ingredients
Serves 2

300g fresh mushrooms - cleaned and chopped finely (I used button mushrooms)
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic - chopped (I left this out today, as I still have the musty garlic)
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 - 2 bay leaf
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp flour dissolved in 1 tbsp water
Salt to taste
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
Dash of nutmeg
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Fresh parsley or thyme for garnish

Method
1. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan. Add butter and lightly sauté garlic on medium heat.
2. Add in mushrooms, thyme, bay leaf and Worcestershire sauce. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the moisture from the mushrooms disappears.
3. Add in chicken/vege stock. Stir occasionally until stock boils , then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
4 Add diluted flour in, and stir constantly (while simmering) until the mixture thickens. Season with salt and nutmeg. Taste and adjust seasoning.
5. Finally, add milk and heavy cream, and bring to a simmer. Turn heat off.
6. Serve hot in your soup bowl. Add freshly ground black pepper. Garnish with fresh parsley or thyme if you have them on hand.

I hadn't finely chopped the mushrooms or the onion so at the end I gave the soup a quick blitz with a hand held blender, leaving it still quite thick.