day 76: ‘shrooms and ‘weed
Thanks for all the great feedback on the sprouted grain bread from yesterday’s post. I hope to post the recipe sometime when I get a chance to write it all out. I’ll let you know when I do!
This weekend I also made awesome dish that epitomizes umami. Mushroom Soup (sometimes I cook other things besides soup, but not often)
I thought umami was a marketing ploy to get people to buy soy sauce. “Another taste bud besides salty, sweet, bitter, and sour? Really?”
Umami basically means savoury, and once I learned that then I knew it wasn’t some made up soy sauce promotion. I’ve obviously known about savouriness my whole life (although I’ve always thought of it as “not sweet”). Some umami foods are:
- soy, miso, worcestershire, and fish sauces
- MSG
- aged cheese
- fish and red meats
- mushrooms
- tomatoes
My umami mushroom soup contained miso, soy, seaweed, and, of course, mushrooms. All of which lended to the delicious umami-ness and of course the healthiness:
Maitake mushroom: anti-cancer, increases insulin sensitivity, lowers blood pressure
Shiitake mushroom: boosts immunity, lowers cholesterol
Seaweed: high in vitamin C and iodine
This recipe is based on one from Meghan Telpner’s tutorial on healing with superfoods and adapted to what I had. Next time I wouldn’t puree the soup, the texture kinda sucked. The flavour was great though!
Umami Mushroom Soup
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 red onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 celery root, peeled and chopped
- 2 cups frozen burdock root and carrots
- 1 cup dried shiitake
- 1 cup dried maitake
- 1 tbsp dried thyme
- 2 tbsp mushroom soy sauce
- 1 handful of arame (seaweed)
- 1/4 c. miso paste
- salt and pepper to taste
Direction:
Heat the olive oil in a big pot on medium heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook to just tender.
Add the veggies and just cover with water. Add the thyme, soy sauce, arame, and pepper.
Bring to boil then reduce to a simmer for 1 hour.
Add miso paste and blend with an immersion blender.
Season with salt and more pepper as needed.
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- Samantha Menzies is an opinionated young firecracker who just happens to enjoy distracting web surfers with chronicles of her mildly entertaining daily pursuits.
Healthy and delicious! I agree that the soup would be nicer un-pureed, get the different textures of the mushrooms, and probably adding a block of firm tofu and some rice stirred in would make this a perfect one-pot meal!
I;ve heard of soy sauce and MSG having the umami taste, but I’ve never heard of aged cheese, mushrooms, and tomatoes – interesting! I probably wouldn’t puree the soup, either, since the textures of the different ingredients would make for a wonderful, filling soup. I’ll bet that miso paste was fantastic!
I’m not so into mushroom soup, but the recipe looks simple and creative.
very interesting……i love mushrooms…i bet this is good
I agree, I think not blending it would make a great asian-style soup. Healthy too!
Aaah delicious soup! I love mushrooms so much! I felt the same way when I discovered “umami”- really? But Top Chef described it well and now I realize that I truly do crave that flavor- just perfect savoriness. I love how thick your soup is too because I’m not a fan of thin, broth based things.
Where do you get frozen burdock root? Not that knowing will do me any good out here, but I’m just that curious!
Thanks!