Restaurant-Quality Soup - At Home

This is another one of my catch-up posts...I made this a couple of weeks ago when it was not so hot outside, you know in the low 80's! LOL But it was too great not to share...only a few years ago, I would have never thought I could make mushroom soup that tastes like it comes from a great restaurant (and not from a can), but I did, and so can you with this easy to follow recipe.

This soup was flavorful, not too thick or too thin, just perfect. I didn't read the whole recipe through before beginning the cooking, so it took a little longer than I anticipated...but it was worth the wait.

Wild Cream of Mushroom Soup
Good Things Catered

Ingredients:

6 Tbsp butter
1/2 sweet onion, finely diced
3 shallots, finely diced
3 small garlic cloves, minced
1 lb. button mushrooms, cleaned, stems removed and sliced 1/8 inch thick
1 lb. wild mushrooms of choice, cleaned, stems removed and sliced 1/8 inch thick
4 cups low sodium chicken stock
3 cups boiling water
1 fresh sage leaf
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup dry vermouth (I used chicken broth)
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp cold water
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

-In 5 qt Dutch oven (or heavy stock pot), over medium heat, melt butter.
-When butter is melted and edges start to foam, add onion and shallots.
-Stir well and let cook until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes.
-Add garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute.
-Add sliced mushrooms to pan and stir to coat well in mixture.
-Stirring occasionally, cook down until beginning to release juices, about 8-10 minutes.
-Cover pot and reduce heat to medium low.
-Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are softened.
-Take lid off pan and add chicken stock, boiling water, and sage leaf.
-Turn heat down to simmer, stir to combine well and when soup comes back up to a boil, vent lid (covering most of soup - letting a small amount of steam escape) and let simmer for 30 minutes.
-Remove sage leaf and discard.
-With immersion blender, blend soup mixture in pulses to completely chop up mushrooms (this will also thicken the soup). (note - if you are using regular blender instead be EXTRA careful! Only add a couple of cups of soup mixture to blender at a time because the high heat of the mixture will form steam and make the blender "explode" with hot soup)
-Once blended well, with small pieces of mushrooms still visible, add heavy cream and vermouth to pan.
-Stir to combine well and bring back up to temperature, slowly.
-Meanwhile, combine cornstarch and cold water in a small bowl and stir to make a slurry.
-Add to soup and stir to combine completely.
-Once soup is up to temperature, salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.