Recently I received eleven fresh shitake mushrooms in my organic vegetable delivery from Old Soul Organics in Fayetteville.  Since I had no idea what organic vegetables would arrive that day, it was fun to decide what I would do with these little gems.

So, I made a soup.  An easy, creamy, satisfying shitake mushroom soup.  With a sprig of thyme.

Yep, you’re going to want to make this yourself.  And yes, dried shitake mushrooms work fine.  However, fresh shitake mushrooms are available now in Northwest Arkansas and will only cost you $0.55 for this dish!  Nice, huh?

This should only take you 20 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes of simmering on the stove.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

·       1 white onion, chopped

·       1 large shallot, chopped (or 2 white onions if you do not have any shallots on hand.  But then, of course you have shallots on hand, right?  They are essential foodie ingredients!)

·       3 tablespoons salted butter

·       3 small Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped

·       11 shitake mushrooms, coarsely chopped

·       6 cups chicken broth (easy tip:  save the carcass from your rotisserie chicken dinner from the night before and boil with water to make an inexpensive broth!)

·       Sprig of thyme

·       Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1.    Heat butter in dutch oven over medium heat.

2.   Add onions and shallots with thyme and stir lightly until soft, approximately 5 minutes.

3.   Add mushrooms and stir.

4.   Add potatoes with pinch of salt, approximately 5 minutes.

5.   Add chicken broth and turn up heat to medium-high until boil.  Leave uncovered.

6.   Once boiling, turn down heat to low and cover for 30 minutes.

7.   Add salt and pepper to taste.  Remove thyme sprig.

8.   To achieve the “creamy” texture of this easy, creamy, satisfying shitake mushroom soup with thyme, puree in blender.

Serve and enjoy!  It is so satisfyingly delicious!