Creamy Wild Mushroom Soup - Vegan Month of Food

Poesy and Plate
 Vegan Month of Food  2014
(check out the hundreds of VeganMoFo blogs HERE)
My goal: cook and blog about vegan food 20 times
  during the month of September.
My theme: words and food

 MUSHROOMS, by Silvia Plath

                                   Overnight, very

                                   Whitely, discreetly,

                                   Very quietly

                                   Our toes, our noses

                                   Take hold on the loam,

                                   Acquire the air.

                                   Nobody sees us,

                                   Stops us, betrays us;

                                   The small grains make room.

                                   Soft fists insist on

                                   Heaving the needles,

                                   The leafy bedding,

                                   Even the paving.

                                   Our hammers, our rams,

                                   Earless and eyeless,

                                   Perfectly voiceless,

                                   Widen the crannies,

                                   Shoulder through holes. We

                                   Diet on water,

                                   On crumbs of shadow,

                                   Bland-mannered, asking

                                   Little or nothing.

                                   So many of us!

                                   So many of us!

                                   We are shelves, we are

                                   Tables, we are meek,

                                   We are edible,

                                   Nudgers and shovers

                                   In spite of ourselves.

                                   Our kind multiplies:

                                   We shall by morning

                                   Inherit the earth.

                                   Our foot's in the door.

What a beautiful way to start my annual Vegan Month of Food – aka VeganMoFo. The image of a living organism ‘shouldering through holes,’ and ‘dieting on water,’ is so peaceful to me. Mushrooms are very quiet, aren't they? I remember when I did not eat mushrooms because I thought they were creepy. Silly me.

Creamy Mushroom Soup (from Vegan Holiday Kitchen, by Nava Atlas)

Note: the original recipe calls for an optional ½ C of dry white wine and some optional silken tofu to make it creamier.

Here’s what you need:

Olive oil for the pan

1 large onion, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic

2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

2 large celery stalks, diced

32 ounces vegetable broth

Dried basil and thyme (1/2 teaspoon each)

12 ounces (or more) baby bella mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced

6 ounces (or more) shiitake mushrooms, whipped clean and sliced

2 15 ounce cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

Rice milk to thin the soup if needed (I did not use any milk at all)

Fresh ground pepper to taste

Here’s what you do:

Sautee the onions over medium heat until soft. Add the garlic and cook just a minute more. Add the potatoes, celery, broth, and herbs and continue to cook until the vegetables are tender (maybe 20 minutes)

Meanwhile sautee the mushrooms in small batches, being careful not to turn them over until they have released some moisture and begun to brown on one side. Set them aside.

Add the beans to the soup and carefully liquefy the entire pot. Add the mushrooms to the creamy soup and if it needs to be thinned out with some milk, add it now.

This soup improves with age – so let it sit and soak for a while before you serve it. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and something green: parsley, basil, chives, green onion tops, etc.

(printable recipe)