My version of Oliver & Bonacini's Mushroom Soup

My version of the famous O&B Cafe Grill Mushroom Soup

I have read some reviews on Oliver & Bonacini's Cafe Grill Cream of Mushroom Soup and that it was fantastic so I decided to take what I read about it and tried to make my own version of the soup.

Ingredients:
- 1 large white onion (Small diced)
- 5 cups of an assortment of mushrooms (Enoki, shitake, king oyster, porcini, button, brown, morels)
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- 3-4 cups of chicken stock
- 2 cloves of garlic, 1 minced for the soup and 1 sliced finely to fry for garlic chips as garnish
- 1 bunch of watercress for garnish 
- 3 sprigs of fresh thyme

Steps
1. In a large heated sauce pan add some butter. When the butter melts completely add in the small diced onion and cook without colour. Then when a lot of the water content within the onion is released then add 1 clove of garlic minced as well as the thyme and stir around. While this is cooking in another pot heat up the 4 cups of chicken stock and bring to a simmer.

2. Add in the 5 cups of assorted mushrooms roughly chopped and saute until the mushrooms shrink and about 75% of the moisture has dissipated. At this point you can add in the hot chicken stock and let it simmer for a bit with the mushroom mixture. After simmering for about 5 minutes pour into a blender or you can use a hand blender and blend until it comes out to the consistency that you are happy with. (I saved some mushrooms to the side before I cooked it so I could saute them in some butter and minced garlic and place ontop of the soup as garnish). When your soup has come to the consistency  you are happy with you can start to serve immediately. Garnish with some fresh watercress, some sauteed mushrooms, and garlic chips.

 I thought this soup was decent and flavourful but probably wouldn't make it again. I did like the earthiness of the soup coming from mushrooms obviously. I would have probably wanted to keep the assorted mushrooms whole and use them in a mushroom risotto so you could still taste the flavours and textures of the mushrooms rather than blending all the beautiful fungi together into one big gloop. I am not a big fan of soup unless it is super hearty or one of the flavourful communal soups that you are served in korean bbq restaurants. The soup was very simple to make. I feel it could have used a touch of cream. When I served it to my sister she felt that it was very chunky and thick. I suppose I should have actually gone to one of the O&B Cafe Grills to try the soup for myself so I could nail some of the complexities and flavour components.

Until next time,
K.M.W.