The Weekly Soup – Mushroom and Roasted Garlic

They had a special on mushrooms in Lidl. €0.39 for a pack of buttons mushrooms. So I bought 4 and figured I’d make soup with it. But I’ve always thought that mushroom soup is a bit bland if you don’t give it a bit of va va voum. Enters the roasted garlic. It’s dead easy. I’ve got lunch for 4 days for about €3 as I had to buy parsley too. It’s cheap, very healthy and the garlic gives it a smokey flavour which will surprise you. 

Ingredients:

4 packs of mushrooms brushed and rinsed; 1 bulb of garlic, 4 onions, 2 cubes of stock, salt, pepper, olive oil

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180 C or gas mark 4. Place your unpeeled garlic cloves in a tray and drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in the oven and keep an eye on them. They won’t take more than 25 min.

While the garlic is roasting, peel and chop your onions roughly. Make them sweat in a large pot with a bit of oil. You want them transluscent but not brown (less than 1o min on low to medium heat). Add the mushrooms and the 2 stocks cubes (I’m using Knorr’s vegetable stock pots) and cover with water. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and let it simmer for 15 min.

At this stage your garlic should be done, so peel it and add it to the soup. Let it simmer for another 10 to 15 min. 

Take the pot of the heat and add your fresh parsley just before you blend the soup. It will become a rich earthy colour with a real comforting taste.