Dried Porcini Cream Soup
Dried mushrooms, milk powder, and potato flakes. A rich starter that weighs almost nothing.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 3.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 11 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- 500 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried porcini | 1 oz | or any dried bolete; broken pieces are cheaper and work the same |
|---|---|---|
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 1/2 cup | the thickener, standing in for fresh russet |
| Dried minced onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Whole milk powder | 1/3 cup | replaces the heavy cream |
| Butter powder or olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Chicken bouillon | 1 cube or 2 tsp | |
| Bay leaf | 1 | |
| Salt and white pepper | to taste | |
| Chopped walnuts | 2 tbsp | toasted at home; the garnish |
| Crackers or bagel chips | a handful | stand-in for croutons |
Method
- Pour 500 ml of water in the pot, add the porcini and the bay leaf, and bring it to a simmer.
- Hold the simmer about eight minutes. The mushrooms need to rehydrate fully or they stay leathery.
- Add the dried onion and the bouillon. Simmer another three minutes.
- Pull the pot off the heat and fish out the bay leaf. Let it stop boiling before the next step.
- Whisk in the milk powder, then the potato flakes a spoonful at a time until it thickens.
- Stir in the butter powder or oil. Salt and white pepper to taste.
- Top each bowl with walnuts and broken crackers.
Dried mushrooms and cream are an old pairing, and the trail version loses less than you would expect. Whole milk powder carries the fat that makes porcini taste like porcini, and it rehydrates without a cooler. The soaking water is the stock here, so nothing gets drained off.
The original leans on a boiled russet potato for body. Potato flakes do the same job in thirty seconds and weigh an ounce. Add the milk powder off the boil, though. Boiled milk powder goes grainy and no amount of stirring brings it back.
Packing
Porcini, onion, and bay leaf in one bag. Milk powder, potato flakes, butter powder, and bouillon in a second. Walnuts and crackers stay whole in a third or they turn to dust.
Variations
- Skip the walnuts and crackers and it packs down to two bags and one pot.
- Vegetable bouillon in place of chicken makes it vegetarian, but the milk and butter powder still keep it out of vegan territory.
- A splash of white wine from a plastic flask, added with the onion, gets close to the original.
https://foragerchef.com/cream-of-porcini-soup-with-black-walnut-pesto