Healthy Mushroom Soup (No Cream)

Healthy mushroom soup without cream or lots of butter, just some cream cheese to make it really smooth and comforting.

A simple healthier mushroom soup to comfort you during these cold early autumn days. The best thing about it? It tastes amazing but has fewer calories than the usual creamy soup. It's made without cream, but adding cream cheese makes it nice and creamy.

So no better time for soup than now, I would say. I've cooked this recipe only yesterday and I still have a bit of it left in the fridge, I am already happily anticipating eating it for lunch. A slice of homemade spelt bread smeared with butter on the side and I need nothing else!

Why is this a healthy mushroom soup?

• It uses no heavy/double cream which has a lot of calories. Instead, you will make it with milk and add a little cream cheese to make it creamy. The cream cheese can be lower in fat as well to save more calories, but don't go any lower than16% fat.
• You will not need canned mushroom soup, which is a great thing. The stuff is full of chemicals and salt (I didn't check but I can imagine it has a lot of sugar as well).
• It's full of vegetables. Mushrooms are a good source of vegetable protein, they are packed with fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals.

Ingredients needed

Mushrooms:

• You can use the white button, cremini, or even Portobello mushrooms. All three sorts are actually the same species.
• The main difference between white button and cremini is the color and I think (but that is just my personal opinion) that cremini mushrooms have a slightly stronger flavor than white ones.
• Portobello are also plain cremini, which were allowed to grow a bit longer.

Vegetables:

• You will need typical “soup vegetables” like carrots, parsnip or celeriac, onions, and garlic. I like the parsnip in this recipe, it is slightly sweeter than celeriac. But if you cannot find it (I can only buy it during the winter months in Germany), celeriac is a good substitute.
• If using celeriac, a piece of about 120 g – 150 g/ 4.2-5.3 oz should be enough. Alternatively, use 3-4 smallish celery sticks.

Stock:

• I use homemade chicken stock most of the time because I always have it in the fridge or freezer. However, you will be fine with using your favorite brand of stock.
• To keep the healthy mushroom soup vegetarian, use vegetable stock. I cooked this recipe with good vegetable stock cubes as well and it was delicious. If available, mushroom stock is a great idea.

Dairy:

• Cream of mushroom soup without cream! That's nice, isn't it? Nothing against cream when it comes to taste, love it, but otherwise I don't like the fact that it adds so many calories.
• So, I replace the heavy cream with milk and, for extra creaminess, some cream cheese. You can use full-fat cream cheese (it always tastes best), but you can get away with using lower fat cream cheese as well.
• However, I would not recommend completely fat free cream cheese, that's just not good. I often use some with about 16% fat.

How to make?

1. Chop the vegetables: carrots, parsnip/celeriac into small cubes. Chop the onions and the garlic finely.
2. Cook veggies in stock until soft, about 15 minutes.
3. Wipe the mushrooms clean with kitchen paper and slice them.
4. Fry in butter (together with the thyme) until golden about 5 minutes. Reserve about ⅓ of the mushrooms.
5. Push the remaining mushrooms to one side of the pan. Discard thyme.
6. Melt the remaining butter in the empty space, and sprinkle the flour on top, let it get very slightly golden.
7. Slowly start adding about 1 cup from the stock while whisking all the time to avoid getting clumps. When the mixture is smooth, stir to coat the mushrooms with it. If it is too thick, add more liquid.
8. Continue cooking for another 2 or 3 minutes.
9. Add the mushroom mixture to the vegetables in the other pot.
10. Add milk and cream cheese and blitz very thoroughly using an immersion blender (Amazon affiliate link). Heat through again, but don't let it boil anymore.
11. Add the reserved mushrooms and parsley, salt, and pepper to taste

What to serve with it?

To make this a complete meal, serve it with some sourdough bread slices with butter. Or even better: herb garlic butter, amazing! If you want to make the soup fancier and maybe serve it to guests, you could make some croutons or crostini.

I often make a bread spread when I know I am only serving soup for lunch or dinner. You can have the spread either on sourdough, crispbread, or any kind of bread you like.

Some of my favorite bread spreads to pair with this healthy mushrooms soup are this Obatzda or Camembert Spread, the Hungarian Dip with Feta or the Polish Cottage Cheese Dip. You could also try the Mozzarella and Garlic Pull-Apart Bread or the Baked Bread Rolls with Ham and Cheese, my kids just love them.

How to store?

This mushroom soup without cream keeps well in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Reheat gently on the stove. I don't recommend freezing it, soups made with flour tend to become stodgy when defrosted.

More fall soups:

• Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Soup
• Easy Pumpkin Soup with Ginger
• German Leek and Cheese Soup
• German Beef Soup

Healthy Mushroom Soup (No Cream)

Homemade, healthy mushroom soup without cream or lots of butter. Adding cream cheese makes it velvety smooth and delicious!

5 from 1 vote

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Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 256kcal

Author: Adina

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Ingredients 

• ▢ 3 medium carrots about 200 g/ 7 oz
• ▢ 1 parsnip or one small slice of celeriac about 120 g – 150 g/ 4.2-5.3 oz
• ▢ 2 medium onions about 150 g/ 5.3 oz
• ▢ 3 garlic cloves
• ▢ 1 ½ liter/ 3.2 pints/ 6 ⅓ cups good-quality vegetable broth or chicken stock
• ▢ 500 g/ 1.1 lbs mushrooms
• ▢ 1 ½ tablespoons butter divided
• ▢ 3 sprigs of thyme or ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ▢ 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• ▢ 350 ml/ 12 fl.oz/ 1 ½ cups milk
• ▢ 3 heaped tablespoons cream cheese
• ▢ 2-3 tablespoon chopped parsley
• ▢ fine sea salt and pepper

Instructions

• Prepare vegetables: Chop the carrots, parsnip, or celeriac into small cubes. Chop the onions and the garlic finely.
• Cook: Pour the vegetable broth or chicken stock into a soup pot. Add the prepared vegetables, bring to a boil and cook until they are soft, about 15 minutes.
  In the meantime, wipe the mushrooms clean with some kitchen paper and slice them.
• Saute mushrooms: Heat half of the butter in a large pan, add the sliced mushrooms and the thyme and cook until the mushrooms are golden, stirring several times in between, about 5 minutes. Remove ⅓ of the mushrooms and set them aside. Discard the thyme sprigs.
• Thicken: Push the remaining mushrooms to one side of the pan. Melt the remaining butter in this empty space, sprinkle the flour over the butter, and let it get very slightly golden. Slowly start adding about 1 cup from the soup while whisking all the time to avoid getting clumps. When the mixture is smooth, stir to coat the mushrooms with it. If it is too thick, you can add a bit more of the soup. Continue cooking for another 2 or 3 minutes. Add the mushroom mixture to the soup.
• Blend: Add the milk and the cream cheese and blend the soup very thoroughly with an immersion blender. Heat through again but don't let it boil anymore.
• Finish: Add the reserved mushrooms and adjust the taste with salt and pepper.
  Sprinkle the soup with parsley and serve immediately as suggested above.
  

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 256kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 32mg | Sodium: 1473mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 10g

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