Creamy Mushroom Soup

Today was a snow day, not because of the snow but because of the cold! Our high was -4 and that was without the windchill! Tonight it will be -45 with windchill. Holy Frozen Cow.

As most of the US is cold tonight, here is a lovely soup to warm you up. I modified this from the Williams Sonoma Beans and Rice cookbook.

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup:

This is a great soup to make on a snow day because it takes a little time and it makes your home smell warm and inviting and if you happen to whip up some whole wheat rolls to serve with it you will really have a treat.

Bring to boil and cook covered for 40 minutes:

• 1/3 cup wild rice
• 2 cups water

Use hot water to soak cashews for cashew cream and rehydrate mushrooms - one handful -  (from the big costco container) for 40 minutes.

While all the boiling and re-hydrating is going on spray a soup pot with Pam and saute:

• 1 onion - chopped
• 1 celery stalk - chopped

adding apple juice or white grape juice or vegetable stock if needed to keep from sticking

Add:

•  3/4 pound of mushrooms - sliced 

to the saute mix until mushrooms start to soften and smell good - about 15 minutes

Add

• 3 cups vegetable stock
• re-hydrated mushrooms 

and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.

Prepare cashew cream while simmering:

Then add

• 1 cup (or more) cashew cream (I added quite a bit more)
• wild rice 

to soup pot and simmer for 5 more minutes. Season with pepper.

Garnish with parsley and serve hot! I also think this would taste wonderful if you added a bit of sliced green onion towards the end and tossed in a handful of frozen corn (for a sweet crunch) and topped it with toasted pecan bits. That is what I am going to do next time.

Ike and Roland added Red Hot to their soup.

Here are all the ingredients in one place:

1/3 cup wild rice

2 cups water

cashew cream (make as much as you want)

dehydrated mushrooms - optional (one handful)

1 onion chopped

1 celery stalk chopped

3/4 lb mushrooms sliced

3 cups vegetable stock

parsley

Possible Improvements:

handful frozen corn

sliced green onion to taste

toasted pecans for garnish