Do the mushroom fantastic. (VeganMoFo day 14.)

Hello poppets. What follows here is a modified, me-ified version of a recipe found in La Dolce Vegan (on golden pond mushroom soup, p. 105) - because, as we know, I can't actually just follow a recipe or anything crazy like that. I made it about four hundred times last fall and winter, with variations such as adding potatoes, and it sustained us through harsh cold ickyness. On Sunday night I made it for the first time this year, and I'd say I have my recipe just about perfect.

I would call my version magic mushroom soup, except for all the stupid unwanted hippie stoner pothead inferences there. Instead I think I'll call it Happy Dancing Mushroom Soup, in honor of those cute little guys from Fantasia. (Oh hush; the first one came out long before Disney was the nexus of evil.) If I post a picture I think Disney might sue me, but I'm gonna go ahead and do it anyway.

THE FOLLOWING IMAGE IS COPYRIGHTED BY WALT DISNEY GOLIATH MEGACORP INC. AND ANY REPRODUCTION OR DISTRIBUTION WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE DEATH BY DECAPITATION:


Anyway. I'm interested to see what happens there. And now, on to the soupness.

Happy Dancing Mushroom Soup!

Ingredients:

• 2 small onions; I prefer yellow (or one large - this is yours to choose... choose, and perish!), chopped, sliced, or otherwise rendered into small bits
• 1 (one) 3.5 oz. container of shitake mushrooms, de-stemmed, fatly sliced
• 2 (two) 8 oz. container of baby portobella mushrooms, also fatly sliced - your choice about the stems on these, I'm pro leaving them in, but shitake stems are unbearable
  
  
• 1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
• 2 tsp. dried dill
• 2 tsp. salt-free lemon pepper
  
• 1 1/2 tsp. paprika
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups stock (I like Imagine Organic un-chicken broth, or Rapunzel makes several flavors of vegan bouillon cubes, one of which nicely flavors two cups of water, but then you need a second pot...)
• 3 cups unsweetened plain almond milk (the very best one is Blue Diamond, and for this recipe original flavor as opposed to vanilla, fo sho.)

Methods:

• Saute, or caramelize, if you will, the onions in a little oil until they're cooked enough to eat - it brings out the flavor, and besides raw onions are the bane of my existence. Do this in the pot you plan on using for the finished soup product, since this is a one pot kinda soup.
• Add in all of the mushroom slices - this will be quite a quantity, and that's alright. Cook them down for a few to several minutes; as they're cooking down add the tamari, dill, lemon pepper, and paprika.
  
• Once the mushrooms are quite cooked down and have released a substantial amount of liquid - yes, they will - stir in your flour. Do this quickly and once it's in don't dawdle. It will form a sort of chunky mushroom paste.
• Add in the first cup of stock immediately once you get your paste at an even consistency. Bring the mixture up to a simmer.


(This is about what it looks like after the addition of the first cup of stock.)

• Add in the second cup of stock, and bring to a simmer once more. Follow the same procedure with the almond milk, adding one cup at a time. Be careful always to only bring to a simmer, never to a boil. If the soup boils, it will "break" - the flour will separate from the oil it has bonded to, and each will float at the surface of your soup in weird little bubble pods instead of infusing it and making it creamy. Guess how I know?
  
• Once all five cups of liquid have been added, let the pot simmer (simmer not boil!) for ten to fifteen minutes.
• Turn off heat; let sit five to ten minutes before serving.
  

(Mmm, Happy Mushroom Soup!)

Makes 4 to 8 servings, depending on how gluttonous you are. Me, I'm pretty gluttonous, and I like eating out of these here Chinese soup bowls with the special spoons... so I get about three servings. So it goes.