Mushroom, Leek & Potato Soup
This recipe for Mushroom, Leek & Potato Soup extracts big, earthy flavors from just a handful of ingredients. Serve puréed or chunky.
By Yankee Magazine|Nov 09 2021|
Mushroom, Leek & Potato Soup
Photo Credit: Heath RobbinsChef Liz Jackson founded Libby’s Bistro with her husband, Steve, in Gorham, N.H., in 1997, and has been bringing “locally sourced, funky fine dining” to the White Mountains ever since. This recipe for Mushroom, Leek & Potato Soup, from Jan./Feb. 2002, extracts big, earthy flavors from just a handful of ingredients and can be served puréed (as originally presented) or chunky. These days, we prefer the latter.
Yield:
8 to 10 servings
Total Time:
1 hour minutesHands-on Time:
30 minutes minutes
Ingredients
1 medium-size leek, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons salted butter
1 large Yukon Gold potato, peeled and diced
1 pound (about 8 cups) assorted mixed mushrooms (see “Additional Notes,” below), sliced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground paprika
1 quart reduced-sodium chicken stock
2 cups light cream or half-and-half
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
Garnish: Fresh thyme
Instructions
In a 5- to 7-quart pot over medium heat, cook the leeks in butter, stirring often, until softened, about 6 minutes. Gently stir in the potatoes and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms give up some of their liquid and shrink in size, about 8 minutes.
Sprinkle the flour and paprika over the mushroom mixture and stir 1 minute. Slowly add the chicken stock, stirring continuously; then increase the heat to medium-high and simmer 20 minutes. Stir in the cream and reduce the heat to low; cook 5 more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, stir in the chopped thyme, and serve hot, garnished with fresh thyme.
Notes
Wild mushrooms, such as porcini, morel, and chanterelle, would be delicious in this soup, but they’re very expensive. We had terrific results using a simple mix of sliced button, cremini (“baby bella”), and shiitake mushrooms, all sold in our local supermarket.
Curious to know if it would work to lighten the calorie/saturated fat load by using evaporated milk. Or 2% with additional thickening? Anyone try it?
Usually in the fall there are a abundance of wild mushrooms (woods: oyster, hen-of-the-woods, king bolete, fields: puffballs, field, etc). I have the Audubon Mushroom book, very good and informative. Collecting mushrooms is a fun get-out time. Keep it simple, read and you’ll be safe. Restaurants pay bucks for these mushrooms, and keep some for yourself. Many good recipes are easily obtained.
I haven’t made this yet – planning to for Christmas (2018)….but there IS a reduced fat HALF AND HALF in the grocery stores – I’m gonna go with that 🙂
We made it with regular milk instead of the heavier stuff (actually, used Lactaid since someone on the guest list has lactose intolerance); the soup was delicious! And we are eager to make another pot. We also used, instead of chicken stock (since another guest prefers not to eat poultry), a “Mushroom stock” (one of the flavors of a product called “Better Than Bouillon”) – all in all, the soup was fabulous. And easy! Love this recipe.
Trader Joe’s sells wonderful frozen mushrooms. Might be a good substitute for fresh when I’m a hurry. Tried it and it works very well.
I used two leeks, large portobello and baby bello mushrooms, left the cream out completely and just added a small can of coconut cream and an extra half cup of water. Delicious!!!
I used heavy cream (leftover from another dish), but used only 1 1/2 cups and added some chopped chives in addition to the thyme. It was scrumptious!
Sounds like my kind of soup. Less liquid, could be used as a sauce, maybe. Do we just use the white part of the leek?