This creamy mushroom soup tastes like something you might have eaten at one of Julia Child’s dinner parties (I wish!) but in reality, it’s a soup for real, actual life.
It comes together quickly and can easily be the entire meal, especially when served with a few buttery biscuits or dinner rolls. But it’s also the perfect complement to any number of main dishes. It’s equal parts comfort and sophistication, a truly satisfying meal that won’t break the bank, and I think we’re all down for that these days.
Years ago my mom gave me the 2 volume set of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking for my birthday. Or maybe it was Christmas? Regardless, I dove into those books like they were the actual holy grail and for a while dinner at our house was all Julia all the time.
I think we all look back on those butter soaked days with a kind of sleepy satisfaction that’s not dissimilar to the hours following a really good Thanksgiving meal. It was a good time while it lasted, but I did realize the importance of relegating all that rich food to more of a special occasion category.
Still, the techniques in those books continue to influence the way I cook and there are recipes I make on the regular that I can absolutely trace back to Julia’s influence. This creamy mushroom soup is one of those recipes.
There are two genius tricks in this recipe that are plucked straight from the pages of Mastering:
Separate the mushroom stems from the caps and use them to make a rich mushroom broth.
Slice the mushroom caps and caramelize them in a skillet before adding them to the soup. This deepens and develops their flavor in a way that’s simply impossible otherwise.
You will find those techniques in play in many of my other recipes, like this creamy chicken noodle soup with garlic and mushrooms.
This is the kind of soup that will impress the socks off dinner party guests when served as a starter. Around here we mostly eat it as the main event, often on a weeknight because it doesn’t take long to make and includes a relatively short ingredient list, sometimes with good crusty bread, buttermilk biscuits, or homemade dinner rolls, and a stack of gruyere crisps.
Recipe Notes:
I keep several kinds of Better than Bouillon in my refrigerator at all times and the mushroom base is one of my favorites. It’s not always available in major supermarkets, but easy to order online: Better than Bouillon Mushroom Base
Serving suggestions
The Ultimate Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits: If you’re craving fluffy, tender buttermilk biscuits with hundreds of flaky, buttery layers, stop right here.
Here’s how to make homemade buttermilk biscuits that are soft on the inside, slightly crispy on the outside, and rise to impressive heights with layer after delicious layer.
Homemade Dinner Rolls: These dinner rolls are incredibly soft and pillowy, with the perfect amount of chew. The enriched dough is easy to work with and the whole process only takes a few hours and most of that is hands-off.
Cinnamon Biscuits with Cream Cheese Frosting: These tender, buttery biscuits are filled with a swirl of cinnamon and sugar, topped with more cinnamon and sugar, and include the option of serving them with cream cheese frosting.
Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.
My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure. Find out more.
Back in culinary school, I was trained to separate the stems from the caps, but I never thought to caramelize the caps first! BRILLIANT. Plus, maybe it's a New England thing, but I never thought to bake biscuits during soup nights. Usually I go for a crusty loaf of bread. I'm so all over this, Rebecca! What a great article. Love it. - Seth ✦