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!
Creamy Mushroom Soup with Shiitake
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 Disclaimer:
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.
David Anstey
Awesome recipe. I had a big bag of dried shiitakes and some chanterelles I put to use for this recipe. I used the water I reconstituted the mushrooms in to make sure i got every bit of the flavour.
Julia
I am glad you liked it! I love shiitake - they are so flavorful! Perfect for the soup!
Karen Blasingame
I love the idea of using different types of mushrooms all together! My question is this... I have dried shiitake and dried oyster mushrooms, how long would I need to cook these down with the carrots and onions before adding fresh mushrooms? I very much look forward to making this dish. Thank you!
Wendy Goood
Delicious. We loved it.
Ann
About how much would you say 15 large shiitake mushrooms weigh? I am looking forward to making this.
Marc
Just made this tonight. Great simple soup. I used 1/2 a red onion and a shallot. As well, I used shitake, oyster and regular mushrooms mix. Beautiful. Thanks.
Sammy
I made this soup a couple days ago and followed the directions word by word, and let me say, this soup was AMAZING! It was gone within 3 days amongst my family. I am now subscribed to stay updated with her recipes because all the ingredients and the directions she listed produced a flavorful soup; unlike some recipes I tried, something was always missing! THANK YOU!
Debra
In a word - Phenominal! I've been wanting to make mushroom soup for years, but it seemed daunting and I didn't like the high sodium found in the canned varieties. Recently I attended a wedding where the first course was mushroom soup, BUT, they had added wild truffles. THAT did it, I had to duplicate it, sans truffles of course! Since I love mushrooms, and knew I would have to double this recipe or end up hoarding it from my husband :), I used 2 pkgs.. shitake, 1 pkg. oyster and 1 pkg. baby portabellos. Yumm. I used 4 cups of homemade chicken broth which really added to the unami flavour and since I wanted a creamy version I didn't separate a portion of mushrooms. Also I and needed it to be GF (gluten free), I mixed 2 tbl. of arrowroot flour in some cold broth that I'd set aside, and mixed it in at the last two minutes of boiling and pureed the entire batch after it cooled a bit. It turned out thick and creamy, so I can add cashew milk (or whatever) and my husband can add regular dairy. I cannot tell you how amzing this soup smells as you're cooking it. Really wonderful recipe. Thanks so very much, you outdid yourself on this one!
Candice
This recipe for home made mushroom soup is absolutely beautiful! I also added 1 tsp of garlic powder, and also 2 tbsp of sour cream when I added the half and half to make it more rich. I also used Cremeni mushrooms and is so delicious!! I would highly recommend it! Thank you so much for the wonderful share and making it super simple!
Regina
I use the canned cream of mushroom soup in a variety of recipes. Would this recipe work well as a replacement for canned in other recipes? If so, would I use the same amount ounce-for-ounce?
Jamie
This soup was so so good!! I didn't have half and half so I used half heavy cream, half milk. I also used chicken broth in place of the water. Served with some warm french baguette... mmmm
Amanda
Great recipe! I made it tonight but i added some red wine to the mix and it was really good! Thanks!
Melissa
I've been wanting to try this soup because it looks so wonderful but my local stores rarely have shiitakes. I did happen to find some yesterday but they were presliced so I'm curious approximately how many ounces would you say you used for your original recipe? Thank you!
Linda
This sounds wonderful! I've been making big pots of soup all winter for my husband and me for dinners and lunches ALL week! Can you please tell me based on your recipe, how many servings this makes. I may need to double it or triple it....just wondering.
Andrew
I hate to say it, but I followed this recipe exactly (aside from deglazing the pan with white wine before adding the onion and carrot) and it tasted really bland.
REALLY bland
I'm thinking it was the shiitakes? They were prepackaged Dole brand Shiitakes from Safeway. I've never had them before this, but I've always been told that they're delicious. These tasted kind of not flavorful? I don't know how to describe it.
I added cayenne, more salt, and some sage and it ended up being ok. I think I'll try adding some wild rice and melted brie to the leftovers.
I'll try this again too with different mushrooms and see how it goes. It's kind of an expensive dish to make though if it turns out the shiitakes just aren't any good.
Casper
I just decided to try this great recipe with cauliflower instead of cream, dairy of any sort. I have a wonderful coconut product by Nutiva that will suffice for butter. I am looking forward to trying this recipe. Hemp milk will also be part of this. Thank you for the basic idea, I am having soup tonight, thanks to this recipe .. . .. . .. 🙂