Portobella Mushroom Bisque

For our honeymoon, Curt and I stayed at an AMAZING all inclusive resort in the Mayan Riviera of Mexico. We loved everything about the resort, especially the food! All of the restaurants we tried for dinner served 4 or 5 course meals. Since we were on the honeymoon, I decided to try being adventurous and ordering foods that I normally wouldn't order. At the Italian restaurant, I decided to try a portobella mushroom bisque. I like portobella mushrooms, but I've never been a fan of mushroom soups at all... so, naturally, I decided to order it. It was DELICIOUS! I really, really liked it and decided that I would try to find a recipe to make it at home.

After searching a few websites, I finally found a very simple recipe that I liked.

• 1 quart chicken broth
• 3 large portobella mushroom caps, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 tbs butter
• 6 tbs flour
• 8 tbs creamer (I used skim milk to make it healthier)

First, I poured the chicken broth into a big saucepan and heated on medium heat. Then, I added in the portobella mushrooms, onion, and bay leaf. Bring everything to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for an hour. This makes a very flavorful mushroom/chicken broth which is the base for the soup.




In a separate saucepan, I melted the butter over medium heat. I then added in the flour, stirring constantly, to make a roux. It's important to make sure the roux doesn't burn. I've burned it in the past and it makes everything taste burnt. Once the roux has cooked a little bit, I slowly started ladling in the broth/mushroom mixture into the roux mixture. To avoid clumps, add the broth when it's hot and make sure to keep stirring the whole time. Once all of the broth is added, keep stirring until the sauce thickens a bit.




Once everything was combined, I added in the milk and let it all heat through. Next, I removed and discarded the bay leaf. I wanted my soup to be creamy rather than chunky, so I used my immersion blender and pureed the soup until it was nice and creamy... this also helped to thicken the soup up a bit. Here's a picture of the finished soup, it doesn't look that pretty, but it trust me when I say that it was great! (I've made it twice in the last 3 weeks) I loved it fresh and even the leftovers over the next few days!