I had planned on having a lot of prep time, but after the wedding and our visit to the art museum, I fell asleep for a couple hours. Then had to go to the store and shop for ingredients and then on my way home I remembered that we hadn’t gotten any food for our Mother’s Day picnic the next day. On top of that, I couldn’t find a pre-prepared pastry crust at the grocery store (mainly because I was still half asleep when I was shopping) so if we were going to have the quiche, I needed to make a pastry crust from scratch. By the time I started prepping, it was about 6:30 in the evening.
Tonight’s Menu:
- Wild Mushroom Soup
- Spinach & Mushroom Quiche
Wild Mushroom Soup
This soup was absolutely delicious. Don’t be deceived with the simplicity of the recipe and the relatively few ingredients.
- 1 8oz package of white button mushrooms (sliced)
- 1 8oz package of portobello mushrooms (sliced)
- 8-10 sprigs of Fresh Thyme
- 1 Onion (of any variety except red)
- Olive Oil
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 2 Cups Vegetable Broth
- 1/4 Cream (whipping cream, creme fraiche or even almond milk)
- 1 Tbsp Cornstarch
- Splash of whatever wine you’re drinking
- 1/2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- Salt & Pepper to taste (starting with 1/2 tsp)
You can of course add more mushrooms or different kinds to this recipe depending on your tastes. Don’t do any less though because they cook down in volume to about 1/3 of what you put in.
You don’t have to be exact with the cooking times here since the longer this soup sits and simmers after it’s been prepared, the more flavorful it gets.
Prep a large saucepan or dutch oven with 2 Tbs of olive oil over medium heat.
Dice the onion and add to the saucepan. Allow the onion to cook while you’re prepping your mushrooms or if they’re already sliced, then cook for 5-10 minutes until soft and aromatic.
While they’re cooking, pour 2 cups of vegetable broth into a measuring cup and stir in the cornstarch. This is just a thickening agent to add volume to the soup.
Add sliced mushrooms and let them cook for about 5-10 minutes. They will have to reduce significantly and there will be a lot of water from them in the pot.
Now add the soy sauce and thyme. Reserve a little thyme to sprinkle on top as a garnish when the soup is done. While you can just throw the sprigs in there, I’d suggest that you pull off the thyme leaves so you don’t have to dig out the stalks when you’re ready to serve the soup.
Pour in the broth and add the bay leaf. Give the soup a good stir and cook it for 15 minutes.
Add a splash of white wine or whatever wine you’re drinking. Doesn’t really matter all that much since this will just enhance the savory flavor.
You can also take 1/4 or 1/2 of the soup, puree in a blender and add back to the soup if you like a smoother texture.
Portobello Mushroom Quiche
For this recipe, I pretty much used Joanna Gaines recipe in the Spring 2018 issue of Magnolia Journal. I pretty much followed all the directions, with the exception that I didn’t really measure any of the slicing or cutting ingredients, as I am wont to do (or not)!
Pastry Dough
Either buy a pre-packaged pastry dough or you can make your own if you’ve got the time:
- 1 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
- 1 Stick of Butter (cold and cut up into pieces)
- 1/4 Tsp. Salt
- Cold Ice Water
- A pastry or dough scraper will be really useful for this recipe!
Use a food processor to pulse the flour, butter and salt until roughly incorporated. Don’t over mix, just make sure it’s a crumbly mixture without too many larger pieces of butter. Add 3 or 4 Tbs of the ice water and briefly pulse until it’s mixed in.
Make a small ball to see if the dough holds together. If not, add a little more ice water 1 Tbs at a time. Then turn the dough onto a lightly floured cutting board and briefly knead into a ball then you can mash it down into a thick disk or leave it as it is, wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it for at least 1 hour.
When you’re ready to use it in your recipe, put the dough on a lightly floured surface like a cutting board that’s big enough on which to roll it out and do just that. To put it in the pastry dish, roll it out so that it’s about an inch or so larger in diameter than the dish, place the dish upside down on the dough, then turn the cutting board, dough and pastry dish over so the dough can just slide down into the dish without having to pick it up and possibly tear it.
Portobello Mushroom Quiche
Preheat the over to 450°. Line a 9″ pie plate with the pastry crust (see above). Line the pastry with foil and bake for 8 minutes. Remove the foil and bake 4-5 more minutes or until crust is set and dry. Then set the pastry dish aside.
- 2 Tbsp Butter
- 2 Cups sliced Baby Portobello Mushrooms (or whatever kind you like)
- 1/2 Cup thinly sliced Green Onions
- 1 Clove Garlic, minced
- 1 Cup Baby Spinach
- 6 Eggs
- 1 1/2 Cup Whipping Cream or Creme Fraiche
- 1/2 Tsp. Salt
- 1/2 Tsp. Pepper
- 1/4 Tsp. Grated Fresh Nutmeg
- 1 Cup shredded Swiss Cheese
Reduce oven temperature to 325°.
Prep the dry ingredients. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat.
Use a whisk to lightly beat the eggs in a large bowl. Whisk in cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir in Swiss cheese.
Sauté the the mushrooms, green onions and garlic, tossing or stirring for 5-10 minutes until the mushrooms are tender. Add the spinach and stir until slightly wilted. Mix the mushroom mixture into the egg mixture. Stir to evenly distribute and pour into the pastry crust.
Bake at 325° for 50 minutes or until the quiche is puffed and golden. Let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before serving.