World's simplest mushroom soup recipe, now as pasta sauce.

[brooksmoses]

So, a while back, I posted a very simple mushroom soup recipe, which basically involved boiling lots of mushrooms in about enough vegetable broth to cover, and then pureeing.

It turns out that if you take that and add tomato paste and some appropriate spices, you get a really tasty pasta sauce that has a lot of the characteristics of a bolognese while being vegetarian (and enough of its own thing to not be just fake-meat-sauce). And it's even friendly to vegetarians who don't like the texture of mushrooms because it's all pureed and stuff.

(chinders said it tasted exactly like Chef Boyardee, oddly. Speaking of whom, did you know that Chef Boiardi -- who founded the Chef Boyardee food line and was its namesake -- directed catering at President Wilson's wedding?)

Comments

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Um. So are you planning to post an updated recipe which gets more specific about "tomato paste and some appropriate spices"? Because this sounds relevant to my interests.

[brooksmoses]

Let me see if I can remember actual quantities.... (Unfortunately, it was a lot of "this looks like a good amount" rather than actual measurements, and it's also been a month or so since I made it.)

As best I can recall, it started the same way with a standard basket of mushrooms in a pot, cover with water (2-3 cups) and add a bouillon cube, simmer for a while (I think this time I did it for 20 minutes; as you can see, the time is pretty flexible), and blend until pureed. Then I added a small (6oz) can of tomato paste and mixed it in; the result was the sort of goopy-but-runny consistency of canned pasta sauce. The spices I added were probably mostly a couple of teaspoons of oregano, but I expect a little garlic powder would also improve it.

If/when I make it again, I'll pay more attention to quantities and send you an update.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks! :) I will experiment with it too.

[rachelpage.livejournal.com]

I just love a simple recipe that makes the tastiest homemade dish.