This is a traditional european mushroom broth, simple to cook, pretty low on the calories but yet full of flavors and healthy goods for your body, like fiber and proteins. I was raised in Russia, and this was one of the recipes from my childhood.
What you will need:
- Two handful of dried mushrooms, ideally wild harvested
- Two large carrots
- 3-4 potatoes, depending on the side
- One large onion
- Your favorite spices
For my soup, I got some mixed boletus: porchinis, red-cap boletus and a few slippery jacks. I would hunt these late summar and have a supply for winter time, to coddle myself and my family with the forest aromas during the cold Canadian winter.
I also prepared some peppercorns and thyme, you can also use bay leafs for this recipe.
Step 1
Cean your veggies and steam your dried mushrooms in a boiled water.
Step 2
boil 3 litres of water in a large pot and add your potatoes and one carrot, cut to large pieces, let it boil for 15 minutes:
In the meantime, cut the second carrot and the onions in your favorite way and fry in on a saucepan and get a golden crust, around 5-7 minutes on the high heat:
Step 3
get the mushrooms from the hot water, (by now these have to become soft and elastic). You can give them a little hand massage and extra wash, to get any sand and other forest leftovers out. Do not dispose of the dark water yet!
Add the mushrooms on your saucepan and fry all together another 5 minutes:
Step 4
Now the veggies and our wild mushrooms are “sealed” and caramelized for stronger flavour. This is a great time to add our spices and fry them all together for another 2-3 minutes, so the spices flavours would “open up”. If you have a dark incrustation on your saucepan add ⅕ water to wash it off while frying, it will add even more flavour to your fried veggies.
Step 5
Add your fried veggies and mushrooms into the pot with potatoes:
If you want the soup to have a stronger mushroom taste, add ½ cup of the dark water that left after our dried mushrooms hydration:
Step 6
add a tablespoon of salt, put a cap on your pot and cook on a medium heat for another 20 minutes.
And the last action, and it’s very important! Once you are done cooking the soup, let it stay for at least 30 minutes, all the ingredients have to exchange their flavors. If you start eating it right away, you may not get the full taste of it, it does need some time for the flavors to stick together.
Bone appetite!
