Mushroom Soup

It's been a while since our last post, as our friends Gabriel and Tracey were visiting from San Francisco last week.  They are two of our most favorite people; smart, funny and fun to be around. If you get a second, you should check out Tracey's blog, warm as toast. She writes tidbits about her life and things that inspire her. It's the first thing I look for when I log in to google reader. While you're at it (and while I am shamelessly promoting my friends), check out u-dot music to listen to some of the music Gabe has worked on. Gabe and Tracey love food as much as we do, so we spent the better part of the week drinking a bit too much and eating way too much. To counterbalance the week of excess, I was in need of something nutritious, earthy and easy. The answer: mushroom soup and green salad with red wine vinaigrette (if you are looking to move away from packaged/processed/pre-made foods, salad dressings are the easiest place to start....more on that later). I love vegetable soups - they are fairly quick to make and really difficult to screw up. For the mushroom soup, I started with about a pound of cremini mushrooms, cleaned and chopped. I also picked up a package of dried porcini mushrooms (1 or 2 ounces, I don't remember exactly). I soaked the porcinis in boiling water for about 15 minutes, until soft and pliable. I then chopped the mushrooms and reserved the water to add to the soup later. In the meantime I minced 2 heads of garlic and some onion (it pains me to admit, but I only had one teeny, tiny little onion left, so I had to use scallions).  I melted 2 tablespoons of butter and sauteed the onion until lightly browned. I then added the garlic and cooked for a couple of minutes. If there is anything that smells better than the combination of butter, onion and garlic, I have yet to smell it. Once I was satisfied with the color and texture of the garlic and onions, I added a pinch of dried oregano and a couple of turns on the pepper mill.  Then I threw in the Cremini and Porcini mushrooms. I cooked the mushrooms down for about 15 minutes, until they looked like this: At that point I added about 4 cups of veggie broth and the water from soaking the Porcinis.  I let the soup simmer for about 15 minutes. Using my handy immersion blender, I then blended until smooth and creamy.  After adding a little bit of salt and some more pepper, I topped of with some fresh, chopped parsley and dug in. It was just what the doctor ordered!