creamy vegan mushroom and farro soup
After a weekend spent experimenting twice with white lamb ragú and drinking half a bottle of orange wine at lunch, one’s health pendulum is bound to swing hard into reset territory in response. The older I get, the more those resets have come to depend on plants, though I am not strictly plant-based and likely never will be. Fortunately this soup is as much a clean vegan virtue as it is a celebration of early shroom season, featuring layers of complementary earthy flavors stacked as thick as the forest floor.
This soup owes its friendly weeknight achievability to one smart shortcut, which is quick-cooking farro: my favorite chewy, substantive grain for a rustic peasant vibe. A former Trader Joe’s exclusive that I lived off of in 2013, most grocery stores now sell a version of this “fast” farro that can be directly added into a soup like this one without a 45-minute advance simmer on the stove. (You can also use barley, which similarly comes in quick-cooking varieties now.) Times have changed.
Because there is no cream on detox week, this soup acts as its own self-creamer, blending a cup of the cooked mushrooms with a thick plant milk and then simmering it all together in stock. The kale could just as easily be another vegetable, but it’s supposed to be Clean Eating, so is any other green truly more qualified for this purpose? On another substitution note, you can use any broth that’s convenient for you, but for true Shroom Superfans™, it’s worth picking up some Better Than Bouillon Mushroom; it adds deep umami shroominess to my life that lasts forever in the fridge and is also great in risotto.
Adapted from The First Mess.
recipe
Creamy without any cream, this healthy, cozy, and naturally vegan mushroom farro soup is made entirely from pantry staples and uses blended mushrooms for a rich, umami base.
Effortful time: 10 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Makes 4 large bowls
you need
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium shallot, chopped
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
4 cloves garlic, minced
24 oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1/4 cup dry sherry (or sub white wine)
1/2 tsp salt plus more to taste
4 cups vegetable or mushroom broth (I used Better Than Bouillon mushroom)
1/3 cup unsweetened, thick plant-based milk, like cashew or oat—I love this one
1 cup quick cooking farro or barley (should say 10 minutes on the package)
1 bunch of black kale, stems removed and leaves chopped
1 tbsp. sherry vinegar
make it
Prep your ingredients. Chop your shallot, mince your garlic, and slice your mushrooms (or buy already sliced ones). You’re done with 80% of the prep!
Build your soup base. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add shallots and cook 1 minute until beginning to soften, then add garlic, thyme, and rosemary to the oil and cook 30 seconds more.
Cook the mushrooms. Add all the mushrooms and stir to coat with oil. They will look kind of dry. This is okay. Brown the mushrooms for 4 minutes—they should have some color on them but not be totally shrunken.
Deglaze the mushrooms. Pour in your sherry wine and scrape up any bits from the pan. Add the soy sauce, salt, and pepper.
Blend some of the mushrooms. Spoon about 1 cup of the mushrooms into a blender, or into something you can hit with an immersion blender. Add the cashew milk and one cup of broth to the mushrooms and blend it into a creamy paste. Return this to the pot. Some wines use native yeasts, this soup uses native creamer!
Create the soup. Add your remaining 3 cups of broth and farro and simmer for 10 minutes. While this cooks, de-stem and chop your kale into bite sized pieces.
Add the kale and simmer. Fold the kale into the soup and cook 5 minutes longer until the farro is very soft and has released starches to thicken the base.
Finish with a hit of acid. Stir the sherry vinegar into the pot and serve with freshly cracked black pepper.