Mushroom Soup

There's nothing better than a big bowl of warming, hearty soup, on a cold winter's day. It seems to be one of our go-to meals just recently. It's also great to make in large batches, and have leftovers for lunch at work for the week.

Having already made and featured a spiced root vegetable soup, this week we tried another vegetable based dish, with a twist of basmati rice! I followed one of Jamie Oliver's recipes, where he also makes a side of stilton, apple and walnut croutes. Unfortunately I wasn't quite that adventurous, but the soup was easy enough :)

You can make this soup in just 20 minutes, so it's a perfect dish for those of us who get in from work late and can't be bothered to cook - that's me every night of the week!

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 2 onions
• Olive oil
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• ½ a bunch fresh thyme
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 4 large portobello mushrooms
• 100 g basmati rice
• 1 tablespoon single cream (remove if vegan)

Method:

1. Peel, halve and finely slice the onions and put them into the large pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, on a medium heat.
2. Crumble in the vegetable stock cube, add a pinch of salt and pepper, strip in the thyme leaves and add the garlic.
3. Tear the portobello mushrooms into the pan, add the rice and cook for a couple of minutes.
4. Pour in 1 litre of boiling water and bring to the boil with the lid on.
5. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Using a stick blender, turn off the heat and blend the soup. Season with more salt and pepper if needed, and add a drizzle of cream.