Exotic Mushroom Soup

I've come to realize that mushrooms tend to be a polarizing food. Most people I know (anecdotal evidence, of course) either love or hate them. Well I fall strongly in the former camp, and I will put mushrooms in just about anything – pasta, chicken, salad – I'm working on a mushroom dessert.

So if you're a mushroom hater, turn away now. Because things are about to get crazy. This soup is pure, unadulterated, mushrooms. And, not just those boring old white ones either. In this soup I used bellas, portobellos and shiitakes. OK and some whites. But you can use just about anything you find – oyster, cremini, chanterelle – whatever you find.

I cooked the mushrooms and onions in the soup in butter or margarine as opposed to oil – you may be tempted to switch back to oil, which you can, but since I didn't use any dairy products in the rest of the soup, I found it added some richness to the finished product.

Exotic Mushroom Soup – Feeds 3-4

1 large onion

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 1/2 pounds mushrooms, diced

1/4 cup flour

3-5 cups vegetable or beef broth

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 to 2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Dice the onion in to small pieces. Heat the butter in a medium pot until hot. Add the onion and cook, stirring regularly, for 8-10 minutes.

Meanwhile dice all the mushrooms into similar-sized pieces. Add them to pot and cook, stirring regularly, another 10 minutes, until they have about halved in size. Sprinkle the flour over the mushrooms, stirring until no streaks of flour remain. Add 3 cups of the broth, the soy sauce, the salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Depending on the thickness desired, add the remaining broth or water. Serve hot.