Mushrooms are a delicious umami ingredient in many recipes. Prepare this silky Hungarian mushroom soup with them as the main ingredients and you will be in heaven.
Hungarians love wild mushrooms. Mushroom soup with fresh dill, lemon juice, and sweet paprika and served with toasty bread rubbed with garlic really hits the spot on a cool evening.
Boletes (porcinis, fresh or dried), morels (fresh or dried), fresh chanterelles, fresh cocorras, and fresh or dried store bought (brown criminis, shitakes, porcini) all work very well in this mushroom soup recipe.
Once the aromatics are chopped and the roux is completed the rest of the soup preparation goes very quickly.
This recipe can be prepared in a heavy pot on the stove.
EQUIPMENT: Oven, Instant Pot or heavy-bottom pot, chef’s knife, wooden cutting board
Selymes Erdei Gombaleves
Cuisine: HungarianDifficulty: Average6
servings30
minutes30
minutesHungarian Wild Mushroom Soup
Boletes (porcinis, fresh or dried), morels (fresh or dried), fresh chanterelles, fresh cocorras, and fresh store bought all work very well.
Ingredients
6 cups fresh and/or dried and reconstituted mushrooms, mushroom soaking liquid reserved
6 tablespoons organic unsalted butter
8 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons dried mushroom powder (ground dried porcinis)
2 cups finely chopped onions
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 teaspoon cayenne
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black peppercorns
4 cups reserved mushroom soaking water, low salt chicken bone broth, vegetable broth, or a combination
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon fresh Meyer lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill, plus more for serving
3 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika, plus more for serving
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk Greek yogurt or sour cream, for serving
Directions
- Prepare your ingredients
- Gently clean fresh mushrooms with a soft brush or paper towels. Pouring boiling water over dried mushrooms and soak for 30 minutes. Reserve soaking liquid. Slice all mushrooms lengthwise about 1/4″ thick.
- Roast fresh, sliced mushrooms with olive oil in oven for 20 minutes at 425°F.
- Chop onion and celery. You should have about 3 cups.
- Smash, peel, and finely chop 6 garlic cloves. Finely chop fresh dill with tender stems until you have ¼ cup.
- Make a roux*
- Set Instant Pot to Sauté on HI. Melt butter.
- Add flour and mushroom powder. Stir with a flat bottom spatula until roux is a slightly browned ‘blond’ color.
- Cook soup
- Add onions, celery, and cayenne. Sauté until onions are soft.
- Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Add mushrooms, thyme, salt and pepper. Sauté until mushrooms begin to brown.
- Stir in the reserved mushroom soaking liquid, bone broth, and/or vegetable broth; scraping the bottom of the pot.
- Add Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, dill, and paprika. Bring to a simmer, set Instant Pot to Sauté LO and continue to cook for about 10 minutes, until soup is thick enough to thinly coat spoon.
- Taste and correct seasoning.
- Stir in heavy cream and return to a simmer. Set the Instant Pot to Keep Warm.
- Ladle soup into bowls and top each with a dollop of yogurt, the reserved dill, and a sprinkle of both mushroom powder and paprika. You can optionally roast in the oven some shredded chanterelles in olive oil with a little bit of salt to use as a garnish.
- Serve immediately with grilled bread rubbed with a clove of cut garlic.
Notes
- * A proper roux is equal parts by weight. If you don’t have a scale use the ratio in the ingredients list.
Just have to say, I tried this recipe last night and it was INCREDIBLE. The mushrooms and Worcestershire sauce give it umami for days, and the paprika and black pepper lend a pleasing heat that’s really appealing in this cold, rainy weather. But balanced and brightened by the lemon juice and dill. I made this soup with seven different kinds of mushrooms! Foraged black trumpets, hedgehogs, and butter boletes; shiitake and cremini from Safeway; and bay boletes and canary tricholoma from the Eastern European grocery store.
Fun making this soup. I use five different kinds of forged mushrooms. My dinner guest said he had never eaten a soup like that… He then confirmed that it was a compliment. 😉
I doubled the recipe because I had quite a hall to process. I couldn’t find any sweet paprika so I just used regular paprika. The soup was very spicy. Too much for some people. I should have started with less spice. Can’t take it out once it once it’s in!
I personally loved the soup; the cream and the Greek yogurt helped balance out the spice. Was still super flavorful and hearty but I’d say the spice overpowered the mushrooms a bit much.