The mushrooms get grated, not sliced, and that is what makes Hairy Bikers mushroom soup different. It comes from Mums Still Know Best, built on 300g of mushrooms, 450ml of stock and 450ml of milk. Four bowls take 40 minutes and come to about 205 calories each.
They write in Mums Still Know Best that it makes an easy, comforting lunch with warm crusty bread. That is exactly the level it aims at, so there is no sherry, no cream and nothing fancy. Onion, green pepper and leek go in alongside the mushrooms, so four vegetables carry it rather than one.
Grating is the whole trick. Sliced mushrooms sit in the soup as pieces, but grated ones collapse into it and thicken the pan as they cook. That is how 300g stretches across four bowls.
Hairy Bikers Mushroom Soup
Description
Flour goes into the pan after the vegetables, then the stock and an equal amount of milk follow. No cream is used at any point. This Hairy Bikers mushroom soup serves four and is ready in 40 minutes.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Cook the vegetables: Melt the butter in a pan. Add the onion, green pepper, leek and garlic, then fry until they start to soften.
- Add the mushrooms: Stir in the grated mushrooms and keep frying until they are cooked.
- Stir in the flour: Add the flour and stir it through, then pour in the stock a little at a time.
- Simmer: Bring the pan to the boil and let it simmer for a few minutes.
- Add the milk: Pour in the milk and bring it back to a simmer. Do not let it boil hard.
- Finish: Season with salt and pepper, stir in the parsley, and serve with crusty bread.
FAQs
Which mushrooms should I use?
They do not name a type, so plain white or chestnut both work, and chestnut gives more flavour. Buy them loose and firm, because tired mushrooms release water and turn the soup grey.
In Veggie Feasts they use a mixture of field, white, portobello and chestnut, with a few shiitake if you have them. Nothing needs to be expensive. A mix simply gives more depth than one type on its own.
Is this mushroom soup made with milk or cream?
Milk, 450ml of it, and no cream at any point. The flour does the thickening instead, which is why this tastes lighter than most mushroom soups and comes in at 205 calories.
Their leek and potato soup is built the same way, on milk rather than cream. Use whole milk if you can, because semi-skimmed makes it noticeably thinner. Do not let it boil once the milk is in or it can split.
What did they serve it with on the show?
Warm crusty bread. On the Comfort Food show they made spicy cheese rolls to go with soup, which are tear-and-share rolls with 50g of chorizo and 100g of grated Cheddar baked into the dough.
That works because the soup is mild and milky on purpose. The chorizo brings salt and paprika and the cheese brings sharpness, so the bread does the job the soup leaves alone.
Why is there green pepper in it?
It adds a fresh, slightly bitter note that cuts through the milk. Mushrooms and milk are both soft, earthy flavours, so without something sharper the soup falls flat.
The leek works from the other side, bringing sweetness. They often add one unexpected ingredient like this, and their carrot and coriander soup does the same thing with orange zest.
Is 300g of mushrooms enough?
For this soup, yes. Most mushroom soups use 400g to 500g for four people, so this one is lighter by design, and the other three vegetables fill the gap.
If you want a stronger mushroom taste, go up to 400g and change nothing else. Soaking a handful of dried porcini in the stock is the other route. Their broccoli and stilton soup sits at the heavier end, with 500g of veg for the same four bowls.
