Wild Mushroom and Thyme Soup

Wild Mushroom and Thyme Soup, sounds delicious right? Well here's the scoop peeps - it's just about the nastiest, most un-appetizing thing I've ever made (or even seen, for that matter) but it does taste good. It tastes really good. IF you can get past how awful it looks it is definitely worth it flavor-wise. I might suggest not blending it up as much, it looked way better before I blended it - once blended it looks like mushroom soup, only replace the word mushroom with a word that rhymes with 'goop' but starts with a p - I'd use another word if I could think of one that rhymes with diarrhea other than maybe gonorrhea, so I'm going with "goop" if ya get my drift...

...and I can't believe I just wrote both diarrhea and gonorrhea in a post about soup. Sorry. I know I just lost everyone and no one is now going to continue reading this post and actually make the soup. My bad. However; for you die hards that still have an appetite, here's the recipe:

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1/3 cup minced shallots
1 1/2 pounds fresh wild mushrooms (such as stemmed shiitake, oyster and crimini), coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 cups (approx) canned low-salt chicken broth
1 pound russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 2 inch chunks
1/4 cup dried porcini mushrooms, brushed clean of any grit
5 tablespoons Madeira

Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add shallots, saute 1 minute. Add fresh mushrooms, saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add thyme and garlic, saute until mushrooms are golden, about 8 minutes. Stir in 6 cups broth, potatoes and porcini. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until potatoes are very tender, about 25 minutes.

looks good before blending it!

but after blending - yuck. 

Working in batches, puree soup in blender. Return soup to pot. Mix in Madeira and enough chicken broth to thin soup to desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Refrigerate.)

Bring soup to simmer before serving. Makes 12 servings.

*notes: I followed this recipe other than substituting white wine for the Madeira, and I didn't peel the potatoes.  I think substituting vegetable broth would be fine if you want to make this vegetarian.

For the record, I know I didn't do a good job selling this one, but it does taste really good - I wouldn't share an ugly dish that didn't at least taste good!

PS: backstory if you're still reading - I found this recipe in a brochure selling cabinets that I found when cleaning out some old files. Don't ask why I decided to make a recipe from a cabinet brochure instead of one I found online that has a million reviews. Possibly a life lesson right there.

9.7.18: tomato tart

9.7.17: first aid certification

9.7.16: brownie, oreo, reese's ice cream cake