Lightning-Fast Cream of Mushroom Soup

But what about the dried porcini? And the toppings?

Refining with porcini: This vegan cream of mushroom soup is hard to beat when it comes to speed and cost. And honestly: I think it's perfect as it is. But if you'd like to give the soup even more flavor, I definitely recommend adding dried porcini! I first grind the porcini into a powder in a food processor or blender and add them after the mushrooms have cooked. It takes hardly any time and gives the soup an extra note you can definitely taste. We tested it and made two soups, "with" and "without" the extra porcini powder. The difference was clear - but we also had to admit that the soup without porcini was already amazing. Just try it yourself and share your experience in the comments below✒️. I'd be really happy to hear from you!

Toppings: The soup already brings so much flavor that you don't necessarily need strongly seasoned toppings. Quite the opposite. I always find it really refreshing to balance the intense soup with just a few slices of bread or a handful of chickpeas from a jar on the side.

But: tastes differ! If you want even more pep, I can recommend roasted chickpeas. (A recipe is coming soon;) But here's a quick description...) They're very healthy thanks to plenty of fiber, quick to make and available on almost every street corner. First rinse the chickpeas under cold water. Then drizzle them with olive oil and roast them either on a baking sheet or in an enamel dish for 35 minutes at 350 °F / 180 °C convection. Afterwards you can season the roasted chickpeas with your favorite herbs and a little salt. Done.

Of course, you can do the same with (stale) bread to make delicious croutons. It's best to dice the bread first and drizzle it with oil. Then continue as with the chickpeas.

Fried mushrooms: For a tasty visual highlight, you can fry a few mushroom slices. Slice a handful of mushrooms, fry them on both sides and deglaze with a splash of soy sauce.

#plasticfree

• Mushrooms are still often sold in sealed hard plastic trays, especially at discount supermarkets. Luckily, other supermarkets sell white and brown mushrooms loose. I usually find them at Rewe or Edeka.
• Margarine: Then as now, many kinds of margarine come wrapped in aluminum foil (e.g. Alsan) or paper (e.g. Rama). So you can easily do without margarine in plastic tubs.
• Plant-based milk and cream are occasionally available in glass bottles. In addition, some manufacturers (e.g. Alpro) boast that "their" carton packaging is 89% plant-based and that they're working on a fully plant-based solution. As I understand it, that would be 100% plastic-free packaging. Some caps are already made exclusively from plant fibers. A great development in my opinion!

#sustainable

Margarine: Palm fat is often added to margarine to make it firm at room temperature. Unfortunately, that has a downside for biodiversity on our planet, since it has caused rainforests to be cleared in the past and still does today. Even though some palm oil products are now labeled "from sustainable production", palm oil plantations often stand in the way of reforestation.

But to tell the whole truth: compared to many other oil crops, the oil palm delivers one of the highest yields per area. So if you did without palm oil, you'd need correspondingly more land for the same amount of oil (link). The current issue of the German magazine Ökotest (12/2023) has a good article on this.

• Land use of palm oil: 3.5 to 4 t oil yield per hectare and year (link)
• Land use of canola oil: 1.3 to 1.6 t oil yield per hectare and year (link, link)

But no matter which margarine you use, its carbon footprint is generally far better than that of butter. The climate impact of butter is more than 30 times worse than that of margarine (link; all links in German).

My personal opinion: I haven't made up my mind yet whether palm oil in margarine is good or bad for the environment. But as far as I can, I avoid palm oil altogether. Luckily, there are plenty of alternatives, so you don't have to rely on margarine with palm fat. When it comes to sustainability, I'm sure about two things, though:

1. The carbon footprint of margarine beats that of butter by far (factor ~30).
2. Avoiding unnecessary processed foods with palm oil is better than consuming them.

Feel free to tell me in the comments which margarine you prefer and what you think about the topic;)