Earlier this year I took to Jamie Oliver's new, now newish cookbook 7 Ways and shared with you his Cauliflower pasta recipe. Which was absolutely delicious. I’ve now returned to Jamie Oliver to bring you yet another delicious recipe from his 7 ways cookbook. This time, as you’ve guessed from the title, it’s his baked mushroom soup we will be cooking today. And get this, this soup recipe requires no blending. That’s right. Soup, with no blender needed!
Jamie Oliver 7 Ways Cookbook
For those of you who don’t know. This is Jamie Oliver's latest cookbook release and considered his best yet. He takes 18 much-loved, popular and easy to get ingredients. And shows us 7 ways to cook with that ingredient. Throughout the book is more than 120 exciting recipes with maximum flavour and minimum effort.
It just makes sense. If you’re cooking with say, mushrooms like we are today. Then the chances that you’re going to use all those mushrooms in a single dish is slim. Having 6 more meal ideas you can use those mushrooms for is not just a great idea, but is sustainable.
As well as sustainability and going waste free great for the planet, it's also great for your wallet. So it just makes sense.
All that being said, if you want to check out the book for yourself, then your best bet is on amazon here.
Step by step Mushroom Soup instructions with photos
As promised, if the above recipe is to vague or you prefer photos to go along with your recipe. I’ve included more of a detailed step by step for you to follow to achieve the perfect baked mushroom soup that the main man Jamie Oliver himself would be pleased with.
Step one
Preheat the oven to 180°c/350°F/160 Fan. Next peel and dice the onions and finely slice the garlic.
Place onions and garlic in a large pan on a medium-low heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
If you have a casserole dish or oven safe pan then use that instead. It will save you a job later transferring your mix to another dish. One less dish equals one less dish to wash up.
Step Two
Strip in the thyme and cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Remember to keep the heat relatively low so as to not burn the garlic.
Step Three
Whilst the onions, garlic and thyme are cooking away, slice the mushrooms and tear the sourdough bread into 4cm chunks.
Stir the mushrooms into the pan, pour in the stock and bring to a boil.
Easy Mushroom Soup Recipe
The beauty of this recipe truly is the minimum effort. Other than the chopping and slicing of ingredients, all you’re really doing is allowing it to do its own thing.
Simply take 10 minutes to get your soup oven ready, then you’re good to go. Go have a bath, watch some TV, draw a picture. Whatever you like! No returning to the oven to stir or check it. Just allow your soup to bake.
Not to mention that this is a soup recipe where you don’t need a blender! Hurray!
Mushroom Soup Ingredients
With 7 ingredients this recipe truly is a breeze to make. However, you may be wondering about substitutions in case your local shop does not store all the necessary ingredients and/or which ingredients are the best to go for.
And so I've compiled a list of the ingredients for this recipe with a little bit more information for you;
Red onions
Unlike their popular comrade the white onion, red onions are somewhat “meatier” making for the perfect base for stock or stock related recipes such as soups.
Which is why they are the go to onion of choice for this recipe. However, if you only have white onions then by all means, you can substitute the red onions for white onions.
Cloves of garlic
Don’t have cloves of garlic but do have garlic powder? By all means swap out the 4 cloves for 2 tablespoons of garlic powder. However, if you do this, instead of adding the garlic first thing, add it when you add the mushrooms.
Bunch of thyme
Fresh thyme is always going to be your best bet to give this recipe the true comfort feel. But if you don’t have any fresh thyme on hand. Feel free to substitute it for dried thyme.
Mushrooms
Portobello mushrooms, button mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms. With some many mushroom options you may be wondering which to go for! And to be honest, it doesn't really matter. I used button mushrooms for the recipe but feel free to go wild.
If you really want to impress with your baked mushroom soup go for a mushroom medley.
Sourdough bread
Sourdough is naturally leavened bread, which means it doesn’t use commercial yeast to rise. Instead, it uses a ‘starter’ – a fermented flour and water mixture that contains wild yeast and good bacteria – to rise.
Most shops have some kind of sourdough bread so I don’t think you will be struggling much to find this. Even if you have to get a less fresh, pre sliced and packaged version.
Veg or chicken stock
Making your own stock will always be better because you have the option to change and make it perfectly suited to your own flavour preference. However stock cubes sold in shops are so much easier and taste delicious as is.
So it's your own preference which you go for. It goes without saying if you’re vegetarian go for the veg stock as opposed to chicken stock.
Gruyere cheese
Gruyère (pronounced "groo-YAIR") is a smooth-melting type of Swiss cheese that's made from whole cow's milk and generally cured for six months or longer. Although this cheese is typically widely available in most shops. It’s not always the cheapest.
As for substitutes, if you can’t get your hands on gruyere, you can also substitute with Emmental, Jarlsberg, Beaufort, comté or raclette. However, chances are if you cant find gruyere, you cant find those substitutes either.
