The weather is all gloomy and dull here in Atlanta today, not a day for taking food pictures but an apt day for a bowl of soup. Promise to upload a better pic of soup sometime soon, Now that I know this soup is going to be made quite often, it’s a light soup (when served in small quantity) and great start with the appetizers!

If you’ve only had “cream of mushroom soup” in a restaurant or from a can (tch tch tch, I detest soup from cans!), you’re in for a real treat with this recipe. Trust-me-this-is-best-cream-of-mushroom-soup-recipe if you get the butter-flour-milk mixture right! And it’s not that difficult to get it right!

It relies only on a handful of ingredients and when you start of with good quality of ingredients, you can be assured that your dish will be delicious because the natural flavors will take care! So take a print out/write down/ bookmark this page.

The ingredients you will need..

8 medium-sized Mushrooms
1 tbsp Olive oil
1/4 cup chopped white onion
2 cloves of Garlic, grated/finely chopped
2 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour (Maida)
1 cups of Milk
1 Bay leaf
1/4 to 1/2 cup Vegetable or Mushroom Stock or Water (depending on the consistency of soup you prefer)
1/2 cup half and half (equal quantity of milk & heavy cream)
Salt and Pepper – to taste

Serves: 2 cups

Soup Preparation:

Over medium heat, In a pot or saucepan, pour Olive oil and once hot add onions, garlic and 6 mushroom chopped (reserve 2 for later). Saute till they turn light brown or till mushroom begins to soften. Set aside and let it cool. Once cool, make a purée or a coarse paste. I prefer to keep them a little chunky than a smooth paste!

In the same pan, heat butter on low heat. Add All-Purpose Flour/Maida and stir well until flour and butter is well combined and continue to sauté till there is no raw flavor of flour.

Slowly stir in the milk and mix using whisk to make sure that no lumps are formed. In case lumps form, keep whisking on medium heat till lumps dissolve.

Add Bay leaf, salt, pepper and bring to a boil, by this time it would have become quite thick. Add veg or mushroom broth or water for a runny consistency.

Add sautéed Mushrooms-onions paste and add Crushed Red Chili Flakes (optional). Bring to a boil.

Just before removing from fire, on low flame, add Half and Half. Do not boil/cook but gently mix till cream or half and half blends well (approx 3-4 minutes)

Check for salt and Pepper, adjust to taste. Remove the bay leaf before serving.

In a small skillet, add a tsp of butter/oil and sauté the thinly cut (length wise) mushrooms. Add to the soup.

Serve hot.

Happy Cooking