Cream of Mushroom Soup *vegan*

Once in a while I get a hankering for cream of mushroom soup. I think it's a childhood comfort thing. This vegan cream of mushroom soup turned out tremendously!

Ingredients

8-10 cremini mushrooms

1 large handful of garlic scapes (or a combination of garlic and scallions)

2 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup water

2 cloves of garlic

1 onion

2 tsp thyme

extra virgin olive oil for sauteing

sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions

It all started with some garlic scapes from the garden. I picked them a couple of weeks ago but I wasn't sure how to use them because I have never cooked with them before so I froze them. If you don't have access to these, I'm sure that sauteing garlic and scallions would suffice. I just dumped a bunch of garlic scapes into our frying pan and sauteed them with garlic, sea salt and extra virgin olive oil until they were tender and a bit browned. Then I added about 2 cups of vegetable broth and let simmer for a few minutes. I set this aside and let it cool and then dumped it in the blender and blended it until it was smooth.

Then I sauteed some cremini mushrooms with a sweet onion, thyme, sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. 

While this was sauteing, I put 1/2 cup of pine nuts (cashews would work well also I think) and 1/2 cup of water in a food processor and blended until very smooth. Finally, I added the scape mixture and the pine nut mixture to the frying pan. I mixed it, warmed it up and then had two bowls with some toast.

Same old cream of mushroom soup taste (okay, it was better than your average cream of mushroom soup), satisfaction and comfort, without any animal products at all!

I've discovered that when I'm not at my best, one of the greatest things I can do is make a new recipe. It takes my attention off of my bad mood and usually results in a delicious meal and much needed positive feelings about myself. And that is exactly what this little recipe provided for me last week.

I hope you love it!

Oh and a very happy Independence Day to my American friends and relatives!

♥ Andrea ♥