A light and creamy gluten free and vegan mushroom soup made in about 10 minutes using frozen mushrooms, 1 pan and a hand blender.
Is Soup and a Sandwich still a thing?
In the dim and distant past it was THE trendy lunch for the hip and happening office worker....back in the archaic times before takeout coffee took over the world (and we were glibly told that computers wouldn't make any difference to the workforce).
I am THAT old!
Today this dodgy hip and non-office worker thought it sounded fab.
Today my lunch menu was a hearty bowl of gluten free and vegan Mushroom Soup with an accompanying Chickpea Tuna sandwich***. I made up a batch of chickpea "tuna" yesterday, after seeing an Instagram post by Maxlamanna It's lovely and super quick to make.
This soup requires very few ingredients and tastes far more indulgent than it is. I've used frozen mushrooms for ease. A bag is only £1 in my supermarket (Tesco) and they are so hand to keep in.
Ingredients (one large bowl - easy to stretch to 2 by a little tweaking of liquid and/or mushrooms)
1/2 bag frozen sliced mushrooms
Half glass of white wine
1/3 can coconut milk** (the rest will be used in a curry later in week)
Salt, pepper, thyme, tarragon
Half a Kallo mushroom stock cube - I find these very strong and salty, so only ever use half at a time.
**I opted to use a light coconut milk today to keep the calorie count low. I haven't worked out the calories for this, other than knowing it was 80 calories for the coconut milk, but it has to be low!
Pop the mushrooms in a smallish pan and top with wine. Add the herbs and crumbled stock cube on top. Only add a tiny pinch of tarragon or it will overpower the flavouring. You don't need much wine, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan to stop the shrooms sticking.
Pop a lid on and heat to a simmer, no need to stir, for about 10 minutes.
Above photo is after simmering and before adding the coconut milk; it smells divine!
The light version of coconut milk I used had very little visible cream, however I found a third of the can was ample to give the soup a rich creamy taste and texture.
With the coconut milk added, I whizzed through with a hand blender** until smooth. Delicious!
**Nowadays I always use a hand blender with stainless steel stick. I've melted 2 plastic versions in the past by using in a pan that's too hot and have learned my lesson. So take care and beware of hot splatters. If in doubt, allow to cool a little before blending, then reheat to serve.
*** Tip
If like me you eat very little bread, do as I do and keep it in the freezer. The gluten free choices are so pricey, I buy a sliced wholemeal version and pop it in the freezer as soon as I get home from shopping. It's easy to take a couple of slices out at a time. You can just about make a sandwich from frozen it defrosts so quickly, or I pop in the microwave to defrost. 2 slices take 1 minute on defrost setting in mine. I also do the same with rolls and pitta breads. The pitta breads go straight in the toaster from frozen.