Russian Dried Mushroom Soup

A dried mushroom soup is a Russian classic dish. Russians love mushrooms and we spend many summer days out in the forest, picking mushrooms. Mushrooms are then sorted, and air dried, before they can be used for soup. Nowadays, I just buy dry mushrooms, but back in childhood days, my grandparents always picked fresh mushrooms and dried them the old fashioned way.

I’ve been craving a warm, hearty and soul filled soup for a while now. I’ve always wanted to make a dried mushroom soup but I wasn’t sure exactly how to do it. There are many ways to make soup, and everyone has their own cooking style. My cooking style is always to bring out the natural flavour of the food. This soup can be made using just water or you can add a vegetable or chicken broth. I added a few cups of fresh home made chicken stock for added flavour and collagen.

The first step is prepping your ingredients ahead of time. I soaked two small packets of dried mushrooms in a large bowl of hot, boiled water. The soak time was approximately 4-5 hours.

Then, prep all your vegetables and herbs, so that you are ready to add them one by one into the cooking pot. You will need a 3L cooking pot. I would recommend using a cast iron, enamel coated dutch oven. A dutch oven holds heat really well and doesn’t require frying at high temperatures. I used a Staud 2.9L dutch oven, and found a few options for you to look at via Amazon. To make the soup taste right, everything should ideally be cooked in one pot. It’s much easier this way and it allows the vegetables to absorb the taste. This soup is all about bringing out the flavour of the vegetables through various cooking methods, so everything should be cooked together.

Here is the list of ingredients to make soup:

  • 2 small packets of dried mushrooms, pre soaked in hot boiled water for 4-5 hours

  • reserve water (mushroom water)

  • 3-4 carrots, washed and peeled

  • 1/4 of a yellow onion

  • 3 celery stalks

  • sea salt ( I use either course grain salt or Himalayan salt)

  • chicken broth or vegetable stock

  • 3-4 bay leaves

  • ghee butter (portion out 1-2 teaspoons) or salted butter

  • 1 yellow flesh potato (lower on starch, more gut friendly and better for people with higher blood sugar

  • 1/4 cup of barley / optional (rinsed)

Now that you have all the ingredients, its time to cook!

  1. Add one teaspoon of ghee or butter into the dutch oven. Keep the cooking temperature at low medium, as it helps buy time. You’ll need to prep cut and grate all the other vegetables in the meantime.

  2. Cut the onion into 1/4 and dice it up into small pieces. I prefer to cut length wise and then dice it. Put the onion into the cooking pot, keep it at low medium to avoid burning.

  3. Wash, peel and cut the ends of the 3-4 carrots. You can either use a grater or a peeler, but you will need to slide the carrots into thin pieces. Add them to the cooking pot. Stir the pot and add a pinch of salt. Keep at low medium

  4. Dice up celery, cutting into into halves and then into quarters. Add that into the pot. Now it’s time to mix all the ingredients again. Use a wood spoon if you have one.

  5. Peel the potatoes and dice it up into small pieces. Add them in too, mix and add another pinch of salt.

6. Cut up the mushrooms into smaller pieces. The quantity and density of mushrooms should be greater now that they’ve been soaked. Add the mushrooms into the pot. Stir, add a pinch of salt and increase the temperature. At this point, you want to have a pot purri of vegetables. Keep stirring, as you need all the vegetables to cook. Add another teaspoon of ghee or butter for flavour.

7. Add 4 ladles of broth and then an additional 3 ladles of reserve mushroom water. Turn the stove to high and bring it to a boil. Once the boiling temperature has reached, add the bay leaves. At this point, you can also chose to add the barley. I would recommend adding less than1/4 cup as barley tends to expand tremendously in water. If you are cooking without barley, that’s fine too. The soup will taste great regardless! Once you bring it all to a boil, let the soup boil on medium to low for another 30 minutes. If you are adding barley, then it has to boil for about 40-45 minutes for the pearl barley to cook through.

8. As the soup is boiling, make sure to stir the pot and add salt as needed. Usually this type of soup will need salt added throughout the cooking process because vegetables absorb a lot of salt. So salt and taste as needed!

9. Serve it in your favourite soup bowl and add a teaspoon of yogurt for taste. In Russia, we use sour cream but I use yogurt for health benefits. Bon Apetit! enjoy!

Liza Benkovitch