Date Published: March 26th, 2021 | Last Updated: March 26th, 2021
Author: Abby |Category: soups, sides, mains
Serves: 1 big pot (6-8) | Prep time: 15 mins | Cook time: 45 mins

Toby and I have been relief veterinarians travelling around Australia for the past 6 months. We’ve spent the last two months in Grafton, NSW and we have quite enjoyed our time here with the great team we’ve been working with. Sadly it’s time for us to move on in a couple of weeks and once again we have to start the process of using up all the things in the fridge. I’ve had a few recipes lined up for the week to destock the fridge, most of them repeats of old dishes, but today I decided to make something new. I’ve had this ‘Hungarian Mushroom Soup’ recipe saved from Allrecipes.com for over a year and for whatever reason never got around to making it until today. It was the perfect recipe to get rid of leftover parsley and celery – which I always end up buying too much of because every recipe only ever needs a little bit (and I refuse to buy half bunches of celery for $3 when I can get a whole bunch for $3.50 even if I don’t need it – it’s the principle!) I’ve never been to Hungary (it’s on the bucket list) nor have I had authentic Hungarian soup so I have no idea how close this recipe is to the real thing but Toby confirms that the ingredients and the flavours of this soup is very Eastern European, so how far off could I be? 😜

I LOVE mushrooms and any kind of creamy rich soup so you can see why I was especially excited to try out this dish. This isn’t any ordinary creamy mushroom soup – in fact, there isn’t any heavy cream at all. The creaminess comes from a flour/milk mixture that thickens the soup and the addition of sour cream makes it even richer. Paprika adds a smokiness to the soup that pairs well with the fragrance of dill which are the two dominant flavours of the dish along with the tang of the sour cream. If you want to make this soup low calorie, you can substitute the butter with olive oil and skip the sour cream altogether and serve it on the side as a dollop. This soup can be served on its own as an appetizer or a side dish, or you can bulk it up with some diced potatoes or add in nokedli (Hungarian dumplings) for a full meal.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients you’ll need:

• 4 Tbsps (50g) butter
• 1 large onion, diced (~4 cups)
• 3 sticks of celery, diced (~3 cups) (optional)
• 500g white button mushrooms, sliced
• 4 cups (1 litre) chicken broth
• 1/4 cup fresh dill, roughly chopped (or 1.25 Tbsp dried dill)
• 2 Tbsps paprika (sweet Hungarian or smokey – or 1 Tbsp of each)
• 2 Tbsps soy sauce
• 2 cups (500ml) milk
• 1/3 cup (100g) all-purpose flour
• 1.5 Tbsps lemon juice
• 1/3 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 cup (250g) sour cream – to make this soup lower in calories, you can add in dollops of sour cream at the end instead of mixing it in
• 1 tsp salt (or more to taste)
• ground black pepper to taste
• 2 portions of Nokedli (optional)

Directions:

In a large pot on MED-HIGH heat, melt the butter then add the diced onion and celery. Sauté the veg for a few minutes then put the pot lid on and let it continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the celery softens and is easily broken with a wooden spoon.

Once the celery softens, add in the sliced mushrooms and sauté for a few minutes. Add in the chicken broth, dill, paprika and soy sauce. Mix it all together, turn the heat up until it comes to a boil, then turn the heat down to low to simmer with the lid on for 15 mins.

Mix the milk with the flour and pour it into the soup. Turn the heat up again until it comes to a boil, then turn the heat down to low to simmer again for another 15 mins. Your soup should be thicker and creamy.

(If using: while the soup simmers, you can make the nokedli (optional) and drain it until ready to use.)

Add the lemon juice, parsley, sour cream*, salt and black pepper. Mix everything thoroughly and turn off the heat when the soup heats through. Do not let it come to a boil. Enjoy! Serve the soup on its own or poured over fresh nokedli.

*Tip: If you prefer to use less sour cream, you can skip it in the soup altogether and just serve the soup with a dollop of sour cream on the side instead.

Summarized Recipe: