Cream of Mushroom Soup

One of the things I cut out of my diet years ago was canned soup. Canned soup is full of sodium and flavor wise is usually one dimensional. My mom has been using cream of mushroom soup for years for a slow-cooked pork chop recipe. I decided I want to make my own cream of mushroom soup for that very purpose, but you could also just enjoy the soup as it.

Ingredients

1 pound white button mushrooms
1 tablespoon butter
dried thyme
freshly ground black pepper
kosher salt
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups mushroom base or stock
1 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

Start by washing, then drying your mushrooms. Then slice them into small pieces. A food processor would be a good choice for this task. Then heat up a 1 tablespoon of butter in a frying pan that will fit all the mushrooms. Add a pinch of kosher salt, then cook them over medium high heat until they have soften some.

Then add them to a large pot along with the 1 1/2 cups of mushroom stock or 1 1/2 cups water with the right amount of your mushroom base. Add a couple heavy pinches of dried thyme and black pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Then add the heavy cream, stir to combine. Bring back to a boil. Then take the cornstarch dissolved in water to thicken the soup. Add more if the soup is not thick enough for you. I made mine really thick, to a paste like consistency because I planned to use it to coat pork chops.