We see the winter with a bowl of creamy mushroom soup, a classic French recipe lightened in this version using a mixture of cream and milk instead of pure cream. A pinch of lemon juice adds tangs and the herbs also illuminate the flavor. The soup is abundant enough to prepare a nice main dish at lunchtime, perhaps followed by a salad, and can be served as a first course for dinner or in small glasses such as teaser palate at the time of the cocktail.
Mushroom Velvety / Creamy mushroom soup
This soup is known as a velvety Due to its creamy consistency. The word, which derives from velvet (“Velvet”), has been part of the French culinary repertoire since 1700, when it was used to refer to creamy desserts or sauces. The great French chef Escoffier was presumably the first to create a soup called a velvetyAnd it was considerably richer in modern versions, being thickened with cream and egg yolk.
In these days the chefs are sometimes entirely exercised with the cream when they prepare a velvety (as in the recipes for broccoli soup and butternut soup already on this site). Other recipes require a cream in one shape or another: heavy cream, fraîche cream, sour cream or, for vegans, coconut cream (e.g.
The mushroom soup can also be made without cream. For example, there are delicious versions of Eastern Europe that use mushrooms with potatoes, onion, dill and sometimes carrots. But I never met a French version that did not require the cream.
So yes, Mushroom Velvety It is comfort food. It doesn’t matter calories, we still need comfort food here in Paris, after crossing The most gray year in 30 years (See View the window of my bedroom on a typical January morning). Météo-France, the French meteorological service, reports that Paris enjoyed only 1,509 hours of sunshine in 2024. I had the deal. This means that the sun has passed during the hours of daytime only about a third of the time.
And gray continues, with cloudy skies as I write. We hope that, in this gray of the seasons, we will finally begin to take some serious sun before my next post, when we can lighten the menu for spring. Meanwhile…
Good cuisine.
