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Mushroom soup with oyster mushrooms and potatoes
Instructions
Peel and rinse the root vegetables. Cut the potatoes into small cubes of 1–1.5 cm and rinse them under running water to remove excess starch. Without rinsing, the starch would make the broth cloudy and the potatoes would stick together in the finished soup. The smaller the cube, the faster the potatoes cook and release starch into the broth for a light thickness.
Chop the carrot and half of the onion into small cubes. Cover the potatoes, onion and carrot with vegetable or chicken broth and cook for 10 minutes until half-done. Add the broth hot – the sharp change in temperature keeps the potatoes firm inside even after long cooking.
Chop the second half of the onion into a larger cube of 5 mm – it will go into the frying with the mushrooms and should keep its texture rather than dissolve.
Cut the oyster mushrooms into large slices of 2–3 cm. There is no need to cut them smaller – oyster mushrooms shrink a lot when fried and small pieces would get lost in the soup. Remove the tough lower parts of the stems, as they would be rubbery in the finished soup.
Sauté the mushrooms with the onion in vegetable oil for 5–7 minutes over high heat until golden. Add a little salt while frying – the salt helps the mushrooms release their water, which then evaporates, leaving a concentrated flavour. Add the prepared mushroom sauté to the soup. Cook for 5 minutes until the potatoes are soft.
Add the vermicelli or any grain to taste – oats, pearl barley or millet. At this stage, add the dried vegetables – they give a concentrated aroma, as if the broth had simmered for a long time. With pearl barley the soup needs to cook longer – soak it in advance for an hour in cold water.
Bring the soup to a balanced taste with salt and pepper, then remove it from the heat. Cover with a lid and let it stand for 15 minutes – this is exactly the time it takes for the flavours to blend and the mushroom aroma to fully develop. Freshly cooked soup is always less aromatic.
Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with fresh parsley or dill. Serve with a slice of dark bread and sour cream if you like.
Tips
- 1
Oyster mushrooms don't need to be boiled or soaked beforehand – fry them straight away and add them to the soup. This is their big advantage over wild mushrooms.
- 2
Let the soup stand for 15–20 minutes after cooking – the flavour becomes twice as rich, as with any mushroom dish.
- 3
For a thicker consistency, add more potatoes and mash a few pieces with a fork right in the pot. I use a similar method for mushroom soup with champignons.
- 4
Serve with croutons, garlic bread or a spoonful of thick sour cream – the classic accompaniments to mushroom soup.
FAQ
Can I use other mushrooms instead of oyster mushrooms? +
Yes, champignons work excellently (cooked in exactly the same way), as do porcini or a mix of wild mushrooms such as orange-cap boletus and birch boletus. Wild mushrooms should first be boiled for 15–20 minutes in salted water to remove any possible bitterness, and only then fried. Dried mushrooms (5–10 g) give the most concentrated aroma – soak them for an hour in warm water and add that water to the soup as well.
What can I use instead of vermicelli in the soup? +
Rice works well (cooks in 15–20 minutes), as do pearl barley (soak in advance and cook for 30–40 minutes), oats (5 minutes), millet or buckwheat (15 minutes). The cooking time of the grain varies – plan it so that it finishes cooking together with the soup. You can also leave out the grain altogether – in that case add more potatoes or semolina dumplings. For a gluten-free option, use rice or buckwheat.
How can I make the mushroom soup more filling? +
Add a spoonful of thick sour cream to each bowl when serving – the soup becomes twice as rich. You can also fry the mushrooms with cream, which turns an ordinary soup into almost a cream soup. Alternatively, increase the amount of potatoes to 5–6, or add blanched beans (200 g). The most filling option is to stir in a creamy cheese sauce: dissolve 50 g of processed cheese in the hot soup before serving.
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