Wild Mushroom Soup

Wild mushrooms, chanterelles, porcini and black trumpet mushrooms, simmered with shallots, garlic and thyme until meaty and savoury, then finished with cream until silky and rich. A soup you mop up with bread until the bowl is clean!

Prep20

Cook35

Total55

Servings

DifficultyEasy

Ingredients

400 gr chanterelles
150 gr porcini
50 gr black trumpet mushrooms
50 gr unsalted butter
2 shallots
3 cloves garlic
2 sprigs thyme
100 ml dry white wine optional
1 l vegetable stock
150 ml crème fraîche or double cream
handful flat-leaf parsley
salt and black pepper

Equipment

Instructions

Prepare the mushrooms

Brush off any dirt with a damp cloth (don't wash them). Trim woody ends. Leave small chanterelles whole or tear larger ones; slice the porcini; leave the trompettes whole. If using dried porcini, soak in 500ml boiling water for 30 minutes, squeeze out and chop, and strain the soaking liquid through a paper-lined sieve to use as stock.

Build the base

Melt the butter in the cocotte over medium heat. When foaming, add the shallots and a pinch of salt and cook gently 5 to 6 minutes until soft, without colouring. Add the garlic and thyme for a minute.

Sauté the mushrooms

Turn up to medium-high and add half the mushrooms. Let their liquid cook off completely before adding the rest. Season well. Cook 10 to 12 minutes total, until golden and caramelised.

Deglaze and simmer (optional wine step)

Add the wine (or 100ml extra stock) and bubble 2 to 3 minutes, scraping up the sticky bits. Add the stock (and any porcini liquid), bring to a simmer, and cook gently for 20 minutes.

Blend (or don't)

Leave it chunky (fish out the thyme stalks), blitz half for body with texture, or blend smooth for a velouté.

Finish

Off the boil, stir in the crème fraîche. Taste and season, it'll need more salt than you expect.

Serve

Ladle into warmed bowls, scatter with parsley, and add garlic croûtons if you like. Serve with plenty of bread.

Notes

The specific varieties of mushrooms matter for authentic flavour:

Chanterelles: Delicate, slightly fruity, golden colour, the star of French wild mushroom cookery
Porcini: Rich, meaty, deeply earthy, provides the backbone of flavour
Black trumpets (trompettes de la mort): Intensely flavoured despite the morbid name, and adds depth

Can't get wild mushrooms? Use 400g mixed "exotic" mushrooms from the supermarket (shiitake, oyster, chestnut) plus 30g dried porcini rehydrated. It's not quite the same but it's still bloody good. The dried porcini are crucial, they add that wild mushroom intensity fresh cultivated mushrooms lack.

The soup keeps well for 3-4 days in the fridge and actually tastes better the next day once the flavours have had time to get properly acquainted. Reheat gently and make fresh croûtons when serving.

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