Creamy Mushroom Soup

A lovely lighter creamy soup up today! The weather seems to be brightening up over the last few days and at the risk of sounding a thousand years old, there's a grand stretch in the evening! 

This soup is best when you use a mixture of mushrooms although standard button mushrooms would work fine. Fancier types like chanterelles, shitake or oyster give a woodier taste that's really delicious. Many of the supermarkets do a pack with mixed varieties that are perfect.

Serve with a slice or two of Weight Watchers whole meal bread and a little low fat butter, or 2 slices of wheaten bread such as Mc Cambridges. A couple of Ryvita crisp bread also go very well as an alternative.

The following recipe makes two lunch/dinner portions or four starter portions.

Ingredients

• 1½ pints of boiling water

• 2 chicken stock cubes. (Preferably low sodium stock cubes). Crumbled
• 5g / 1 teaspoon of low fat butter spread
• 100g onion. Peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic. Peeled and finely chopped
• 150g - 200g Mushrooms. Washed and roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon of dried or fresh thyme
• 50g extra low fat cream cheese
• 50ml of low fat milk
• Juice of half a lemon
• 2 teaspoons of dried or fresh parsley
• A good twist of black pepper and a little salt if needed

Method

1. Heat a large pot on a medium to high heat. Add the boiling water and bring it back to the boil. When boiling, add the stock cubes and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to medium and allow it to simmer away.
2. In a separate frying pan, heat to a medium to high heat and add the butter. When it's bubbling, add the onion and fry for 3-5 minutes until softened.
3. Next add the garlic and thyme and continue to fry for a further minute or so. When done, transfer the onion and garlic to the simmering stock.
4. Next, turn up the heat to high and add the mushrooms. You want to brown the mushrooms slightly, without drawing the moisture out of them. Stir fry for 3-5 minutes then transfer to the stock when done.
5. Stir the stock base to ensure all the ingredients are mixed. Turn up the heat and bring the soup to the boil. Allow to bubble for a minute or so, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for approximately 20 minutes partially covered with a lid or plate. 
6. After the soup has simmered for 20 minutes, decant approximately half the soup into a bowl. Carefully blitz the half remaining in the pot until smooth with a hand blender. (You can blitz all of the soup if you prefer a smoother soup).
7. Stir in the cheese, milk, lemon and parsley and stir to combine. 
8. Return the bowl of soup to the pot and stir to combine.
9. Taste it and add more salt if it needs it.
10. Serve in warmed bowls with a twist of black pepper.