Recipe: Creamy Leeky Onion Mushroom Soup with Feta

Creamy Leeky Onion Mushroom Soup

Yep. It evolved!

And I approve!

FWIW: Whenever I stumble onto a recipe that intrigues me, I "pin-it" here: http://pinterest.com/imqtpi/ (Yep, I got suckered-into the Pinterest Craze!).

So the genesis of today's recipe was "Oh, crap - I've got another Farm-Share Delivery!" Followed by "Oh, Jeez - More leeks?! I never used the leeks from my LAST delivery!!!"

I had an overabundance of leeks, is what I'm sayin'!

I also had a bag of onions that was threatening to sprout on me so I figured "Leek + Onion + Soup" was in order.

And Google pointed me here: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=204103

See? I'm getting lazy now and just copying/pasting links!

Anyway, it was a good starting point. Here's what I ended up with:

QT's Creamy Leeky Onion Mushroom Soup with Feta

Makes a big vat o' soup - I'm guessing 6-8 generous servings

(adjust to suit your needs/fridge contents/whatevers!)

Ingredients

• 2-3 Tbs olive oil
• 3 big fat leeks, dark green leaves and roots chopped off
• 1 big yellow onion
• 2 small-ish red onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 Tbs sugar
• appx 1 cup of fresh mushrooms (I used half crimini and half plain ol' white)
• appx 1/4-1/3 cup white cooking wine
• 4 cups beef broth
• (optional) 1 little envelope of beef-flavored Swanson Flavor Boost and a little more water
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tsp (or more) dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried tarragon
• 1/4-1/2 cup dry red wine
• appx 1 oz crumbled feta cheese
• appx 1 cup heavy cream
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Clean all the dirt off of the leeks (or as much as you can manage!). Thinly slice the white and light-green portions of the leeks, cross-ways, (you want skinny little Leek-O's). Set them aside.
2. Thinly slice the onions. Again, you want a bunch of O's.
3. Finely chop the garlic.
4. Heat olive oil in a large, heavy pot over medium heat
5. Add the onions, leeks and garlic to the hot oil. Cook on medium low, stirring just enough so that the onions start to cook, but not brown.
6. While the onions are cooking, slice the mushrooms.
7. Once the onions are limp and translucent, turn off the heat and add the sugar. Stir lightly and let 'em sweat for appx 5 minutes.
8. Turn heat back up to medium-low and add the mushrooms. Saute 'til the mushrooms brown (but the onions should not).
9. Stir in white cooking wine to deglaze the pan.
10. Turn heat up to medium and add broth, bay leaves and appx half of the thyme. Bring to a gentle boil. Then reduce heat to simmer.
11. Cover pot and simmer for appx 45-mins to an hour.
12. Check it periodically. Taste test it. Add Flavor Boost (if desired), more thyme and a teeny bit of tarragon. Salt/pepper to your liking...
13. Let it continue to cook. All told, I think I let mine simmer for an hour...
14. Toward the end of cooking (appx last 10 mins), remove the bay leaves. Tthen add the feta cheese. Crumble it as small as you can, and let it simmer for a few. Hopefully it will *kinda* melt. If you still see big chunks, squish 'em against the side of the pan with the back of a wooden spoon.
15. During the last 5 minutes of cooking, add red wine and let it cook-in.
16. Add heavy cream and stir-in well.
17. Serve and ENJOY!

This is actually a pretty "hearty" tasting soup. I think you could hit it with an immersion blender, if you were so inclined. It's almost like oniony cream-of-mushroom soup - only better!

I think it could also work, quite nicely, as a sauce base. Something you could pour over, say, a London Broil (although I'd add more tarragon for that).

Yeah - I'm pretty pleased with how it came out!

Now I hope it freezes well!

(I'll try to add a picture later!)