Mexican Mushroom Soup

This is a gorgeously moreish and filling soup - intense in mushroom flavour with a warm smoky spiced punch cutting through. 

This recipe is very loosely based on Thomasina Mier's 'Herby Mushroom Soup from the book 'Mexican Food Made Simple'. I've adapted it due to ingredient substitutions according to what I had in stock, and also out of convenience. I decided to inject some smoky charred flavour with chipotle paste and paprika, rather than first dry roasting the tomatoes, chilli and onion for speed, and I cooked everything in the one pan rather than three, mainly to reduce the clearing up process after a long day with my two girls. The final soup was utterly delicious but I will try the original at one point.

I also used a scotch bonnet chilli rather than jalopeno - not conventionally Mexican but it is Caribbean in origin and it did work. 

Mexican /Mushroom Soup

This makes x4 adult portions as a main meal. 

Here's how:

• 1 large white onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 scotch bonnet
• 3 tomatoes
• 600g mushrooms (try and use a variety if you can)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1.2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground anise
• 1.5 tsp chipotle paste
• Small bunch coriander leaves and stalks
• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 1 litre vegetable stock

Optional:

• Sour cream or creme fraiche

Firstly pour the oil into a saucepan and place on a medium heat. 

Finely dice the onion and mince the garlic and add to the pan. Carefully chop the scotch bonnet, removing the seeds unless you're an absolute chilli fiend and add to the pan. Make sure to wash your hands after handling these.

Roughly chop the tomatoes and add to the pan. Throw in the salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, anise and chipotle and allow to cook down for a few minutes, stirring gently. This will provide the base flavour for your soup.

In the meantime rough chop the mushrooms and add to the pan. Pour over the stock and add the coriander leaves and stalks too. 

Slowly cook until the soup comes to the boil, then simmer for ten minutes and remove from the heat. 

Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes and then blitz with a blender. 

Re-heat until warmed through and serve with a teaspoon full of creme fraiche or sour cream and some buttered bread. Enjoy!

If you're keen on more soup recipes here are a few more:

Asparagus Soup with Crispy Bacon
Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup
Curried Parsnip and Spinach Soup
Red Pepper Soup
Chicken Noodle Soup with Pak Choi
Vegetable Soup
Thai Sweet Potato Soup
Chunky Lentil Bacon and Kale Soup
Skinny Broccoli and Fennel Soup
Creamy Mushroom Soup with No Cream
Quick Pork Noodle Soup
Leek Potato and Cauliflower Soup