Creamy mushroom soup with Shiitake

Creamy mushroom soup with Shiitake - made completely from scratch! So easy and delicious! If you haven't tried shiitake mushrooms yet in a soup - make this recipe and you'll love it!

In between the Christmas cookie recipes, I have to fit in this cream of Shiitake mushroom soup I made last week from scratch without using any heavy cream, and using only 1.5 cups of half-and-half. And, by the way, you can use any type of wild mushrooms in place of Shiitake. I've made this soup years before, with different types of mushrooms, and it's always been popular with the family, and I thought it would be nice to make a rendition of it during the holidays this year. Warm and hearty creamy mushroom soup is so welcome on cold winter nights, as a prelude to any dinner. In fact, for the past 2 weeks, a bowl of this wild mushroom soup with shiitake or a carrot-lentil soup always awaits me and my husband as a warming appetizer before dinner. And I wholeheartedly recommend the same for you: fill yourself up with soup before dinner, and you won't be as hungry and will probably eat less for dinner.

I know many people use store-bought cream of mushroom for gravies, but this is a SOUP! This recipe doesn't use any heavy cream and uses only 1.5 cups half-and-half, majority of creaminess in the soup comes from pureeing mushrooms, carrots, onions and vegetable stock (which you make yourself by boiling water with vegetables) into a wonderful thick concoction that looks like it's full of cream. The thick density of pureed mushrooms is easily solved by adding a bit of half-and-half. Or, if you're a purist and don't want any cream, you could even get away by substituting half-and-half with lesser amount of milk. Then, right before serving, sprinkle the soup with freshly ground black pepper and salt and enjoy your quiet winter evening warmed by a comforting homemade mushroom soup!

Step-by-step photos: how to make creamy mushroom soup with shiitake

Scroll down for the recipe, but these photos will help you to make this soup.

Start with preparing beautiful Shiitake mushrooms

Slice them up!

Chop up onions and carrots

Cook mushrooms, carrots, onions

Add 2.5 cups water to vegetables

Use food processor to puree vegetables and vegetable stock you just made

pureeing vegetables and vegetable stock in food processor

pureed vegetables and vegetable stock

Put puree back in the pan - see how thick and rich in color it is! Just a little bit of half-and-half will make perfect! No need for heavy cream.

Green onions are optional but I highly recommend using them!

Chop up the green onions!

Soup with added half-and-half. Nice cream of mushroom color!

4.89 from 70 votes

Creamy Mushroom Soup with Shiitake

Make this creamy shiitake mushroom soup from scratch!  This recipe doesn't use any heavy cream and uses only 1.5 cups half-and-half, majority of creaminess in the soup comes from pureeing mushrooms, carrots, onions and vegetable stock.  So good! 

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Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Total Time 50 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 8 people

Calories per serving 109 kcal

Author: Julia

Ingredients

• 10 oz shiitake mushrooms , large whole
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 carrot chopped
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 2.5 cups water
• 1.5 cups half-and-half (or heavy cream)
• 3 green onions chopped (OPTIONAL)

Instructions 

How to make creamy mushroom soup with shiitake

• Slice mushrooms into bite-sized pieces. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large pan, add sliced mushrooms and cook for about 10 minutes until mushrooms soften. Remove half of cooked mushrooms to a separate plate.
• To the other half of mushrooms, remaining in a large pan, add chopped onion, carrots, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper to taste. Continue cooking vegetables for 10 more minutes, until onions and carrots soften a bit.
• Add 2.5 cups of water to vegetables (mushrooms, carrots, onions) in the pan, bring to boil and boil on medium heat for 20 minutes. Some liquid should visibly evaporate, leaving reduced stock, but don’t let all water evaporate. add more water if that’s the case.
• Remove from heat and add the stock you just made (water with mushrooms, carrots, onions) into the food processor. Process the mixture until it achieves puree consistency.
• Put puree back into the same cooking pan, add reserved cooked mushrooms that you removed to the plate earlier. Add 1.5 cups of half and half. Bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer (low heat) and cook covered for 5 minutes, constantly stirring. Add more salt and pepper if desired. Your soup is done at this point, or you can add chopped onions towards the end or use them as garnish, or skip them altogether (depends if you like green onions in your soup).
  

Notes

• What can you use instead of half-and-half?  You can heavy cream instead.  It will work just fine! Or, even better, use half milk and half heavy cream.

Nutrition

Nutrition Information

Creamy Mushroom Soup with Shiitake

Amount per Serving

Calories

109

% Daily Value*

Fat

 

8

g

12

%

Saturated Fat

 

4

g

25

%

Cholesterol

 

20

mg

7

%

Sodium

 

335

mg

15

%

Potassium

 

223

mg

6

%

Carbohydrates

 

6

g

2

%

Fiber

 

1

g

4

%

Sugar

 

1

g

1

%

Protein

 

2

g

4

%

Vitamin A

 

1535

IU

31

%

Vitamin C

 

3.1

mg

4

%

Calcium

 

59

mg

6

%

Iron

 

0.3

mg

2

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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