Polish Mushroom Soup Recipes

POLISH MUSHROOM SOUP

Steps:

• Chop the mushrooms and set aside. Dice the onion and add to a large frying pan with 2 tablespoons of butter and the oil. Cook over medium to medium-high heat until the onions are becoming translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the chopped mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes. If you're using all fresh mushrooms, you will need to cook in batches (until they shrink up a bit) or to use a very large frying pan.
• While the mushrooms are cooking, add the broth to a large pot. Peel and dice the potatoes (if you're using them), peel and slice the carrots, add both to the broth. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetable are tender (you should be able to easily insert a fork into them).
• Add the mushroom mixture, the dill, and the marjoram to the soup pot and simmer for 5 minutes. If you used dried mushrooms, you may add some of the soaking liquid now. I added 1 1/2 cups of the liquid to my soup. It makes the broth much darker and adds a lot to the flavor. Be careful not to add all of the liquid. There is often a little sand or grit from the dried mushrooms that settles to the bottom of the liquid. (You can always freeze the liquid and use it in other mushroom dishes.)
• To thicken the soup, in the mushroom pan, add a tablespoon of butter and the flour. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Slowly add 3 or 4 ladles of the soup broth, whisking until smooth. Whisk in the heavy cream. Add this to the soup, stirring or whisking until incorporated to slightly thicken the broth. Cook the soup for just a few more minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. The amount of salt in your broth will determine the amount of additional salt needed.
• If you've chosen to add pasta, add cooked pasta to the bowls, then fill with soup.

POLISH MUSHROOM SOUP

Steps:

• Rinse dried mushrooms. Place mushrooms in 2 cups of cold water, and soak for at least 4 hours or overnight.
• In a large pot, bring stock to a simmer. Add celery, onions, and carrots. Strain dried mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid. Add strained soaking liquid to soup. Chop hydrated mushrooms into 1/4-inch pieces slightly larger than diced vegetables, and add to soup. Add sliced white button mushrooms.
• Cover, and cook soup until vegetables are tender, about an hour. Bring soup to a boil. Stirring constantly, add orzo. Reduce the heat to a gentle boil, and, stirring occasionally to prevent pasta from sticking, cook until orzo is cooked through, another 6 to 8 minutes.
• Meanwhile, make a roux: Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add flour, and cook, stirring constantly until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove 1 cup broth from soup,and add roux, whisking constantly until slightly thickened and free of lumps. Stir thickened liquid into soup. Add chopped parsley and dill.
• Finish soup with sour cream: Add 1/4 cup thickened soup to sour cream. Whisk until smooth. Add sour cream to soup, whisking constantly until it is well incorporated, about 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

POLISH MUSHROOM SOUP FROM DRIED MUSHROOMS (VEGAN, FOR CHRISTMAS EVE)

Steps:

• [The night before] To get rid of dirt and impurities, rinse dried mushrooms briefly in cold water. Then, place them in a bowl and cover with fresh water - just enough so they float freely. Set aside overnight. If you're worried that a bowl might attract some unwanted attention (from bugs, cats etc.), cover the bowl with cloth or a plate.
• Once you're ready to cook, prepare a cooking pot (ideally sized at 2.5 quarts or more).
• Move soaked mushrooms to the pot, keep the soaking water.
• Grab the bowl with remaining soaking water. Try separating the water from the sediment formed at the bottom. Move the water to the pot and get rid of the residue.
• Top the pot up to 2 liquid quarts (1.9 - 2 litres) of water. Cover with a lid and cook on the lowest heat for 25 minutes, until the mushrooms start to turn soft.
• As the mushrooms cook, peel all the vegetables and chop them roughly.
• Once the time is up on the mushrooms, add in all the vegetable chunks and peppercorns. Continue cooking for another 30 minutes, but follow the next step 15 minutes in.
• With 15 minutes left till the end of cooking - let's cook 'łazanki' noodles. Grab another cooking pot, fill it with water and bring to boil. Drop the pasta in, and just follow the directions on the pack - in my case that's 10 minutes of cooking time.
• Using a slotted spoon, carefully remove the mushrooms and veggies from the stock and set them aside.
• Using an extra fine sieve, strain the stock multiple times, until it's clear and not foggy. If you don't have a fine sieve, line a regular sieve lined with a cloth instead (cheesecloth, a piece of muslin square or similar).
• Let's balance the flavours now - add 2 generous pinches of salt and a solid pinch of ground black pepper.
• Add a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice and blend everything together with a spoon. Have a taste - does the soup need more kick? I usually add one more tablespoon of lemon juice (so two in total).
• Slice the mushrooms into stripes, small ones can be kept whole.
• The vegetables gave their all, there isn't much flavour left. But if you wish, you can reuse them to bulk up pâtés, pierogi fillings etc. I usually reuse some carrots, cubed, for serving.
• Arrange the mushroom slices in the individual soup plates. Add 'łazanki' pasta and pour the soup over it. Garnish each plate with chopped parsley (optional)

ZUPA GZYBOWA - POLISH MUSHROOM SOUP

Steps:

• 1. Put dried mushrooms in a pot and cover them with boiling water. Cover pot and let stand to soak until they are soft. This depends on the mushroom you use. This may take a few minutes, or maybe sometimes an hour.
• 2. After they are softened, rinse them and chop them up into diced bits, or into strips.
• 3. In your soup pot, add all mushtooms and the broth. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer.
• 4. In a saucepan, sautee onions in all the butter until brown and tender. Add onions and butter to the pot.
• 5. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch/flour with a ladle or two of the hot soup. Whisk until all lumps are gone. Add it all back to the soup, or strain through small strainer if you still think you have lumps left.
• 6. Stir in the sour cream. Salt and pepper to taste. Also add vegeta if you have it / if you want to. At this point, you may want more sour cream so add 8 oz instead of 4. I don't like lots of sour cream so I just do 4.
• 7. Garnish with chopped dill / parsley / pepper when serving.