This homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup is rich, flavorful, and easy to make. A mix of fresh mushrooms, thyme, heavy cream, and a splash of sherry creates a luxurious soup that’s as cozy as it is elegant.
Before You Start Cooking
- Mushrooms: The flavor of this soup will depend on the fresh mushroom varieties you choose at the market (more on this below). Try different combinations to find your perfect blend!
- Make-Ahead Friendly: This soup is great for prepping ahead, making it ideal for stress-free entertaining. I often serve it as a starter for dinner parties or holiday meals like Thanksgiving or Christmas.
- Not a Substitute for Condensed Soup: The proportion of liquid to flour in this soup is not a good stand-in for recipes calling for condensed cream of mushroom soup, even when calling for it to be reconstituted.
How to Make Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup
Step 1: Prep Your Mushrooms
For the best Cream of Mushroom Soup, use a mix of fresh mushroom varieties to create a balance of more robust and delicate flavors. Here are some of my favorites:
- Shiitake: Deep, umami-packed flavor with a hint of smokiness.
- Cremini or “Baby Bellas”: Slightly more mature than white button mushrooms of the same species, these brown mushrooms have a richer, earthier flavor. (Portobellos, their fully mature form, are even more savory and meaty.)
- Chanterelle: Earthy and buttery with a hint of fruity, peppery flavor.
- Oyster: Delicate, meaty, and slightly sweet flavor.
- White Button: Mild, neutral flavor that’s subtly earthy, nutty, and blends well with other flavors.
The mushrooms you pick will also determine the color of your finished soup. Using more brown mushrooms will will give the soup a slightly deeper color than varieties like white button.
For maximum freshness, I recommend buying whole mushrooms instead of pre-sliced. Clean them before removing any tough or dry stems and cutting the caps into 1/4-inch slices (aim for bite sized pieces if using chanterelles).
Check out out How to Clean Mushrooms the Right Way from Kitchn for tips on cleaning different mushroom varieties.
Step 2: Sauté and Deglaze
Grab your favorite soup put (I like to use an enameled cast iron Dutch oven) and melt unsalted butter over medium-high heat. The butter will foam up as it heats–wait until the foaming lessens and add chopped yellow onion.
Cook the onion for 5-8 minutes, just until it’s soft. (No browning here; we’re going for tender, not caramelized.) Next, add your mushrooms and season them with salt and pepper.
As the mushrooms cook, you’ll notice them releasing their liquid. Let that liquid evaporate almost completely and sauté until the mushrooms are tender and starting to brown around the edges. This will take about 8-10 minutes.
Now it’s time to thicken things up. Stir all-purpose flour into the mushrooms to coat them and make a roux. Let this mixture cook for just a minute or two to eliminate the taste of the raw flour.
Here’s where the flavor magic starts for this soup base: deglaze the pot with dry sherry. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up those golden brown bits stuck to the bottom—they’re flavor gold!
Tip: If you don’t have dry sherry on hand you can swap it for a dry white wine, like Pinot Grigio.
Step 3: Simmer the Soup
After the sherry has evaporated, stir in chicken or vegetable stock and fresh thyme leaves. If you’re using store-bought broth, keep in mind that saltiness can vary. I recommend buying low-sodium stock and adjusting the seasoning with kosher salt once the soup has simmered.
At first, the soup might look a little “gloppy” when you add the liquid—don’t worry! As the soup heats, give it a good stir, and the roux coating the mushrooms will dissolve, creating a smooth base.
Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Let it bubble away for about 20 minutes, giving it an occasional stir. As the soup simmers, it will thicken slightly and the broth will infuse with the flavors of the mushrooms and thyme.
Step 4: Finish the Soup
After simmering, I like to puree about 1-1/2 cups of the soup in a blender or food processor after simmering, and then stir it back into the pot. This gives the soup base a velvety texture and concentrates the mushroom flavor, while still preserving the texture of some of the sautéed mushrooms.
For safety, let the soup cool slightly before blending to avoid accidents.
Texture Tip: Prefer mushroom soup with a smooth, bisque-like consistency? Puree the entire recipe in batches and add extra broth if needed to reach your desired thickness.
Once the puree is incorporated into the soup, stir in heavy cream for a rich, luxurious finish, and season with salt and pepper to taste. The amount of salt you’ll add will depend on the broth or stock you used and your personal preferences.
If adding the heavy cream leaves the soup too cool for serving, gently reheat it over low heat until it’s warm and steamy. Be sure to avoid boiling, which can cause the cream to curdle.
Make-Ahead Tip For Entertaining
Hosting a holiday dinner or dinner party? You can prepare this Cream of Mushroom Soup soup a couple of days ahead of time. When making it in advance, I recommend leaving out the heavy cream and storing the soup in the refrigerator.
When it’s time to serve, reheat the soup over moderate heat on the stove—no need to worry about cream curdling while juggling other hosting tasks. Once it’s hot, stir in the cream just before serving for the best texture.
Serving Suggestions
- Ladle the soup into bowls and finish with a few grinds of freshly-cracked pepper.
- For a pretty presentation, sauté some extra mushrooms in butter and use them to garnish each serving with a sprig of thyme.
- Pair it with crusty artisan bread for dipping, or take it up a notch with a batch of my Buttery Garlic Croutons—bread and soup are a match made in heaven!
Storing Leftovers
- Refrigerate: Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat gently on the stove to preserve the creamy texture.
- Freezing: This soup freezes well for up to 3 months if you skip the heavy cream, which can separate in the freezer and create a grainy texture. After defrosting and reheating, stir in the cream before serving. Be sure to leave at least an inch of space in the container for expansion.
More Soup Recipes to Try
- Split Pea Soup
- Creamy Roasted Tomato Soup
- French Lentil Soup
- “Mexican Street Corn” Soup
- Wonton Soup
- Creamy Chicken Gnocchi Soup
- Italian Wedding Soup
- Creamy Sausage Tortellini Soup
- Creamy Turkey Wild Rice Soup
Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup
Ingredients
- 1 pound mixed fresh mushrooms (I use a mix of cremini, shiitake, and oyster or chanterelle)
- 1 large yellow onion , chopped (about 2 cups)
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup dry sherry
- 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth or stock (see note)
- 1/2 to 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (see note)
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Clean mushrooms and discard any tough stems. Cut mushrooms into 1/4-inch thick slices. Set aside.
- In a large, heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium to medium-high heat until foaming subsides. Add onion and cook until softened but not browned, about 5-8 minutes.
- Add mushrooms and 1/2 teaspoon each kosher salt and black pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the released mushroom liquid is mostly evaporated and the mushrooms are tender and starting to brown around the edges, about 8-10 minutes.
- Add flour and stir to coat the mushroom mixture. Cook for 1 minute. Add sherry and cook for an additional minute, scraping any brown bits from the bottom of the pot.
- Stir in chicken or vegetable broth and thyme leaves. Bring to a boil, stirring. (The soup may look, for the lack of a better term, “gloppy” at this point. This is normal! As you stir and the liquid heats, the roux will dissolve.)
- Reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes before proceeding.
- Transfer 1-1/2 cups of soup to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth (see important note about pureeing, below). Stir pureed soup back into the pot.
- Stir in heavy cream and season to taste with salt and pepper. Gently warm over low heat, if needed, and serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
About our recipes
Please note that our recipes have been developed using the US Customary measurement system and have not been tested for high altitude/elevation cooking and baking.
Editor’s note: This recipe was originally published on Striped Spatula in October 2017. We have updated the blog post with process photos and improved copy to address reader questions we’ve received.
hi- has anyone frozen this recipe? I’m just interested to see if it could be batch made and frozen?
Hi Emma, as outlined in the blog post above, you can freeze the soup without the cream for up to 3 months, adding the cream after defrosting and reheating.
So good! Is the nutrition information per cup? Or for the entire soup?
This is the fifth time I have made this soup and it is my favourite recipe. I like to use cremini and button mushrooms mixed . The flavour is phenomenal .
I won’t be looking anymore for a mushroom soup recipe . I did add a little extra Sherry . Thank you .
Love love mushrooms!! Delicious soup quick and easy.
I confess that I absolutely cannot stand mushrooms but I am tasked with making this soup every year for our Fall events at Church. One Father told me the soup is “divine.” I use a combination of cooking sherry and white wine. I also add a good hit of Worcestershire sauce to the mushrooms as I sauté them.
We sell out of this soup every year.
This recipe is a winner. I added extra mushrooms because I love them. I used cooking sherry instead of the real stuff for budgetary reasons, but it was still amazing.
Thank you for this recipe. I haven’t been able to make any of my go recipes in a long time. (Dairy allergy) but now I can have all of them again. I did change it a bit. I used full fat oat milk with dairy free sour cream instead of heavy cream and also plant based butter. It’s still not the same for me but it was SO good. Thank you so much.
Simple, quick, hearty amd delicious!
This was a very easy recipe to follow yet the results tasted gourmet!! Fantastic recipe
OMG…easy and incredibly delicious. Appreciated your added details/options as well. Already passed the recipe and my soup pix along to friends….and I’m still enjoying my first bowl. That’s the level of my enthusiasm! Thank you.
Just made this soup today and it’s absolutely phenomenal! I LOVE it and it’s 100% husband-approved. The only comment I have is that I tasted the soup right before the cream went in and, honestly, the cream isn’t even 100% necessary. Could potentially be vegan if you use vegan butter and no cream. Next time I’ll probably end up just 1/2ing the cream or omitting it altogether to see if my husband notices. FANTASTIC SOUP!
This soup is delicious! I added a pinch of cayenne pepper since my family likes a little spice. Thank you for sharing this recipe…it is going to be a winter staple!!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was delish! I spooned the some of the soup into a large pyrex and used my immersion blender instead of a traditional blender and it came out just fine. Great recipe!
This was so good!! I had a ton of shiitake mushrooms, so that’s all I used. Will be trying it with a mix of mushrooms next time. Also, if you don’t like creamy soups, I think the soup is great enough without that added cream!! Yummy!
OMG! This is so tasty….one of the best soups I have made!!!
I love anything MUSHROOMS…and this recipe looks divine. Thank you for sharing.
This is a simple to make and absolutely delicious soup.
“Oh My Goodness!” My only regret is that I didn’t find this 3 years ago when you first published it. It is so good. I rarely give out 5 stars but this one deserveds it.
I must be slower than you on prep; it took about 30 minutes to slice, chop, measure and what-not