How to make Oyster Mushroom Soup? (Perfect for Cool Evenings)

• Food: Oyster Mushroom Soup
• Writer: Nicolas Wilson
• Content-Type: Food Blog

For cool evenings, this oyster mushroom soup is a healthy, therapeutic meal. Lemongrass, miso, and ginger provide a ton of flavor to this dish.

Jack goes to comedy class one night a week, which means I have the entire night to myself. I normally eat toast for dinner in front of the computer and let myself slide down a rabbit hole of Youtube videos instead of doing anything productive.

I observe what people eat in a day, I watch people who live in vans and cook vegan food (#vanlife), I watch people who live in vans and cook vegan food while raising young children, and I read the scroll of crazy judgy comments that accompany that lifestyle choice. I’ve gotten my fill of Youtube at the end of the night.

Lauren Toyota of Hot for Food (go grab her book, it’s amazing) is one person I’m glad to have encountered… I also learned about Timothy of Mississippi Vegan and his extremely beautiful Instagram account through her videos/IG stories. Timothy and I later became acquainted after discovering that we both work for the same publishing house.

Fast forward to today (!) and his book, Mississippi Vegan, is a knockout! It’s jam-packed with mostly southern-inspired vegan recipes that all look amazing! There’s vegan gumbo (four different types), “sausage” biscuits, fried popcorn tofu po’boys, slow-cooked red beans and rice, and a whole lot more.

This Oyster Mushroom Soup was my choice. It wasn’t particularly southern, but it sounded and tasted incredible, and it was!

Variations on Mushroom Soup

I adore brothy soups, and when I saw the ingredients for this mushroom soup recipe — lemongrass, ginger, miso, and so on – I knew I had to try it because it contains so many of my favorite ingredients.

Timothy frequently employs unusual ingredients (kombu, several sorts of mushrooms, etc.) to create deep umami flavors in the book… He does say, though, that if you don’t have one or two of the components, you can still cook the meals.

After cooking this mushroom soup recipe, I can tell you that it has a lot of flavors, but it would still be excellent if you used tamari instead of miso if you didn’t have kombu and if you used cremini mushrooms instead of fancy oyster mushrooms.

This soul-healing mushroom soup makes me so happy, and it’s a terrific soup to cook now that the nights are becoming cooler. Make this, and then go to Mississippi Vegan to learn more!

Oyster Mushroom Soup

This brothy Oyster Mushroom Soup, somewhat adapted from Timothy Pakron’s Mississippi Vegan, is a delightful, aromatic supper on a cool night.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 cups chopped leeks, white part only
• 1 cup chopped celery
• ¼ cup minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons minced ginger
• 1½ tablespoons white miso paste
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 5 cups vegetable broth
• 5 cups of filtered water
• 3 cups oyster mushrooms, sliced or torn (4 ounces)
• 2 cups peeled and julienned carrot (1 large)
• 5 dried bay leaves
• 1 stalk lemongrass, crushed with a rolling pin and minced
• 2 tablespoons tamari
• 1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1-inch piece of dried kombu
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 8 ounces cubed tofu, optional
• Optional garnishes: scallions, sesame seeds, and/or red pepper flakes

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a big pot over medium-high heat. Sauté the leeks and celery for about 10 minutes, or until transparent. Garlic and ginger should be added now. Cook for an additional 5 minutes. Cook for another 5 minutes after adding the miso, garlic powder, and onion powder.
2. Add the vegetable broth, water, oyster mushrooms, carrots, bay leaves, lemongrass, tamari, lemon juice, vinegar, and kombu, as well bay leaves, lemongrass, tamari, lemon juice, vinegar, and kombu. Mix thoroughly. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook for an additional 30 minutes.
3. Add the tofu, if preferred, and season with freshly ground black pepper. Remove the bay leaves and kombu before serving. If desired, garnish with scallions, sesame seeds, and/or red pepper flakes.