Mushroom, white wine & thyme soup

When the wintery weather starts to kick in, there is nothing more soul-soothing than curling up with a blanket, a good book and a bowl of hot homemade soup. It really is one of life's most comforting and nourishing things to do.

I am a massive soup fan, and can make a load of different soups from memory or make an entirely new soup from whatever I happen to have to hand in the fridge and pantry. Soup is one of those truely versatile foods that are very forgiving and almost impossible to make taste inedible.

This mushroom soup is so easy, and can be made vegetarian (use vegetable stock instead of chicken) or vegan (also leave out the mascarpone and cream). It literally takes about 25 minutes to make, and it's all done in one pot - so it's easy on clean-up too... the BEST kind of recipe in my opinion.

Try this:

Ingredients

1 onion, diced finely

2 cloves garlic, chopped finely

2 TBSP olive oil

20gm butter

500gm mushrooms (I like an assortment of varieties, eg Swiss, Portobello, Shiitake)

1/2 cup of white wine

A handful of fresh thyme, stalks removed

1 litre of chicken stock

1/3 cup of cream

Salt and pepper

A generous dollop of mascarpone to garnish (or more cream)

To begin, heat the olive oil over high heat in a large pot with a thick bottom. Roughly chop all the mushrooms, then add to the hot oil with the butter. Cook the mushrooms for 5ish minutes on the hottest heat. They need to cook down, release moisture, and begin to get some brown caramelisation. Don't worry if they stick a bit.

When the mushrooms are nice and brown, turn the heat down a little and add the onions, garlic and thyme leaves and continue to cook for a few more minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the wine to deglaze the pot - it's your chance to get all the stuck bits off the side and bottom of the pot and incorporate them into the mushrooms. Now add the stock, and bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer. Cook gently for 15 minutes, then check for seasoning and adjust to taste.

When your soup is done, remove from the heat and add the cream. Use a handheld stick blender (if you have one) to quickly blitz the soup to your desired consistency (a food processor will do here too, but it's more cleaning up). Serve it up with a spoonful of mascarpone or more cream, fresh thyme and plenty of bread for dipping.