Veggie Packed Kind of Cream of Mushroom Soup

Veggie Packed Cream of Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp. butter
• 2 tbsp. minced garlic
• 2-3 sweet potatoes
• 1/4 c. chopped onion
• 2 red bell peppers
• 1 zucchini
• 1 head of broccoli
• 16 oz. container of white mushrooms
• 6 tbsp. flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• 32 oz. vegetable broth
• 1 c. cream
• Two sprigs of thyme, to taste

Directions:

• In a large pot, melt butter at and sauté the garlic and all the vegetables except the broccoli, until tender, at medium-high. May take about 10 minutes.
• Toss in flour, salt and red pepper and half the vegetable broth. Mix until smooth, then add the rest of the broth and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, until the broth has thickened.
• Stir in the cream and stir for a couple minutes, then reduce the heat. Throw in the broccoli and thyme. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until all the flavors are combined and soup is thick, 15-20 minutes.
• Eat and enjoy!

The journey to this meal:

A month ago, I had actual cream of mushroom soup at Stomping Grounds, and have been craving it ever since. I’ve always had it in stuff, like green bean casserole (the health food of Thanksgiving), but never on its own. I found a very simple recipe, but wanted more substance, so I threw in all the vegetables I had that would probably go bad soon. (My 2019 New Year’s resolution was to let “less stuff go bad in the fridge”.) The original recipe just called for pepper, but I have gotten into the habit recently of throwing in red pepper flakes where recipes call for pepper. I never measure it when I add it, so I have no idea how much I put in. It’s a creamy soup, so it probably won’t turn out super spicy anyway. Also threw in some thyme because couldn’t hurt? It was very tasty, and super filling. Probably the longest that took to cook was the sweet potatoes. I add the broccoli at the end just because whenever you sauté broccoli with a bunch of other stuff and stir it around a lot it starts to break apart and it doesn’t look as pretty and the pieces get smaller. Also, I put in sea salt. My roommate Brianna got me into sea salt a year and a half ago, she puts it on a lot stuff, and I put in sea salt almost every time a recipe calls for salt. It’s just a little more flavor.

Thank you for reading! Enjoy!