Ingredients

The following ingredients have 6 Servings
  • 50g butter
  • 1 red onion, peeled and roughly chopped
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 big garlic cloves, crushed
  • 600g Portobello mushroms, sliced
  • 5 sprigs thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 5 cups good quality chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 3 tablespoons cream
  • 2 tablespoons sherry
  • 4 small brown mushrooms, thinly sliced
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 8 slices good quality wholemeal bread
  • 1 1/2 cups Caramelised onions / onion jam
  • 3 tablespoons butter

Instruction

  • Heat the butter in a large heavy-based saucepan and cook onions with sea salt and pepper over a medium/gentle heat for 10 minutes or until softened. Add garlic, mushrooms, thyme and bay leaves. Cook for a further 15 minutes over a medium heat, stirring every few minutes until mushrooms are pretty well cooked.
  • Add stock, bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for half an hour. Add cream, milk and sherry and cook a further 2 minutes. Take off the heat, remove thyme stalks (the leaves will have all dropped off) and bay leaves. transfer to a food processor and whiz until combined.
  • When ready to serve taste for seasoning, then in a small fry pan cook extra small mushrooms in olive oil over a medium heat for about 3-4 minutes or until almost crispy. Drizzle with a little extra cream, garnish with mushrooms and optional micro greens and serve with Gruyere and caramelised onion toasties.
  • While soup is heating heat too large fry pans. Butter bread and put 4 slices in (2 in each pan), buttered-side down. Top with evenly divided caramelised onions and Gruyere cheese, and finally the extra bread slices, butter-side up. When toasties are golden on the bottom, carefully flip and cook the other side - about 5-6 minutes all up. Deliciousness.