Tony Zentgraf
I had been thinking of making a vegetarian mushroom soup since I had made the Smoked Brisket and Barley Soup a few weeks back.
The other day, I came across a great buy on some Crimini Mushrooms and picked up a few pounds.
Building Umami
I wanted to give the mushroom soup a good depth of flavor and immediately I thought of caramelizing onions and bringing in the garlic confit oil as a starting point.
I used a mushroom base that is vegetarian that adds a good umami depth of flavor to soups and sauces; luckily I was able to track down a store in my area that had it.
Smoking the mushrooms was an afterthought because I was originally going to roast them but that day I already had the smoker running for another recipe and figured I would throw them on there as well.
Wild Rice
I was going to use barley, like when I did the brisket soup, but I came across a wild rice blend that I had stashed in the corner of my pantry.
Wild rice has antioxidant boosting and cholesterol lowering properties. Maybe I was on a health kick that day, but anyway, I thought it would go well with in the soup.
Vegetable Stock
I didn’t have any premade vegetable stock from the store, so I made some. Recipe is here. I went heavy on the onion skins and added tomato, some broken up mushrooms as well a good amount of fresh thyme and parsley. After cooking the vegetable stock, I let it steep for another 30 minutes – 1 hour.
The extra onion skins and the extra steeping time really gave a dark look to the vegetable stock. Roasting the vegetables that went into the stock would have given even more depth of flavor, maybe you can roast them before making the stock to get even more out of the stock.
Umami
Let’s talk about Umami, you have probably heard the word thrown around for years. Without getting too scientific, umami can be considered the fifth taste. We generally can taste, salty, sweet, sour and bitter but in Japan they consider umami as a fifth flavor.
Our flavor receptors pick up umami from amino acid glutamate. To ease some confusion, monosodium glutamate is a man made seasoning that was created to give an umami sensation to any dish it is added to.
What is Amino Acid Glutimate?
Unlike amino acid glutamate, which is naturally occurring in foods such as cheeses, mushrooms, tomatoes, and meats. Food processes such as aging, curing and fermenting foods will break down the proteins and in turn create glutamates as well.
These naturally occurring glutamates are what we pick up as savory, meaty or complex. Or more simply the Umami Japanese translation states – pleasant, savory taste.
Other Umami Factors
In this recipe, the umami hits from a few points. Smoking the mushrooms adds additional umami to the mushrooms, the liquid aminos add some umami and roasting vegetable for the stock can bring brings in some umami notes.
Although wild rice may not qualify under the umami definition it does have high number of essential amino acids which may play into the umami in this soup as well.
Enjoy!
Smoked Mushroom & Caramelized Onion Soup (V)
Print RecipeRecipe Multiplier
- 2 lbs Crimini Mushrooms sliced
- 1 tsp Bragg's Liquid Aminos
- 1 tbsp Garlic Confit Oil or Vegetable Oil
- 1 ea Yellow Onion sliced
- 2 ea Shallots sliced
- 4 ea Garlic Cloves chopped
- 3 ea Celery Stalks ¼" diced
- 2 ea Carrots ¼" diced
- 1 cup White Wine
- 64 oz Vegetable Stock
- 1 ½ tbsp Mushroom Base – Better than Bouillon Base (vegetarian)
- 1 tbsp Dry Thyme
- 1 cup Wild Rice Blend
- Salt and Black Pepper to Taste
Instructions
Vegetable Stock
- Make the Vegetable Stock (or use store bought) Strain stock once cooking is complete.
Smoke the Mushrooms
- Slice the mushrooms into ¼" to ⅜" thick slices.
- Toss half of the mushroom slices with the Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Smoke Mushrooms on a smoker set at 225° for 30 min – 1 hour. You can substitute Oven Roasted Mushrooms roast at 325° degrees for 15 – 20 min.
Prep for the Soup
- Cut the onions and shallots into strips.
- Chop the garlic.
- Cut the carrots and celery into ¼" dice.
Cooking the Soup
- In a 5 quart pot, heat the Garlic Confit Oil or vegetable oil over medium heat.
- Add the onions and shallots. Cook to caramelize the onions and shallots. Take the time to give it at least 20 minutes to caramelize. This will help to deepen the flavor of the soup.
- Once they are caramelized, add the garlic and carrots and celery and saute for a couple of minutes.
- Add the smoked or roasted mushrooms to the pot and saute for a couple of minutes to break down the mushrooms a bit.
- Deglaze the pot with the white wine. Reduce by half.
- Add the vegetable stock and bring to a boil.
- Add the Mushroom Base and break apart in the boiling broth.
- Add the dry thyme and wild rice blend.
- Reduce the soup to a simmer and cook covered for 45 minutes or until the rice is cooked.
- Puree 1/3 of the soup. This will thicken the soup to a nice texture.
- Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Enjoy!
