Chanterelle soup with cream and potatoes: summer in a pot
Chanterelles from the forest or a basket at the market, fried in butter with onion, cooked briefly with potatoes in a light stock and finished with cream. Nothing more is needed: chanterelles have a peppery, faintly fruity flavour that would be a shame to drown out. Two rules: clean them dry, and don't cook them too long, or they lose their bite and can turn bitter.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Cleaning the chanterelles 15 min
- Frying 10 min
- Cooking and finishing 20 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneClean the chanterelles dry
Clean the chanterelles of needles, sand and soil with a brush or a small knife; trim the stem ends. Don't soak them in water: chanterelles are spongy, they soak it up and lose flavour, and then they stew in water instead of frying. Rinse very dirty ones briefly under running water and dry at once on a cloth. Halve large ones lengthways, leave small ones whole.
Ingredients: 400 g chanterelles · 1 pcs onion · 40 g butter · 300 g potatoes · 1000 ml vegetable or chicken stock · 150 ml whipping cream (30%) · 1 tbsp plain flour · ½ bunch flat-leaf parsley · ½ pcs lemon, juice · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
TipThe sand sits in the ridges under the cap. A mushroom brush or a soft toothbrush does the job better than water.
Brush, knife, no waterFry in butter
Melt the butter in a pot, soften the chopped onion 4 minutes. Add the chanterelles and fry over medium heat 5–6 minutes, until they release their juice, the juice evaporates and they start to glisten. Salt.
Glistening chanterelles, juice evaporatedCook briefly with the potatoes
Cut the potatoes into 1.5 cm dice, add to the chanterelles, pour in the hot stock. Simmer 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. No longer: chanterelles cooked long turn rubbery and can go bitter.
TipBitterness in chanterelle soup is most often overcooking or old, overgrown mushrooms. A quarter of an hour is enough.
A quarter of an hour, until the potatoes softenFinish with cream
Mix the cream with the flour, temper with a ladle of hot soup and pour into the pot. Boil, stirring, 2 minutes, until it thickens slightly. Season with pepper, salt and lemon juice; acid brings out the mushroom flavour.
Cream with flour, temperedServe
Sprinkle with parsley. With bread or with pasta squares. Eat chanterelle soup the same day; reheated, it loses its aroma.
Parsley, bread, summer
Before you start
Without cream
2 tbsp butter at the end instead of the cream and more parsley: a clear version where the chanterelles show better.
Cream of chanterelle
Blend with half the mushrooms, keep the rest whole for the top. With buttered croutons.
Chanterelles for winter
Fried in butter as in step 2 they freeze without losing flavour (raw ones turn bitter after thawing). From a freezer portion the soup is ready in 20 minutes in January.
