Easy Peace Corps Cream of Mushroom Soup

Are there cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup available here? Maybe in the cities... I don't know.

So, I royally screwed this one up, and it still turned out really good. That's a good sign.

I got the idea for this recipe from this crockpot blog: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/search/label/soup

However, my recipe isn't even close. It just inspired me to try making my own. Unfortunately I have never seen fresh mushrooms here in the desert. I used a can. Here's my version...

2 c water
2 boulion cubes (I used chicken, but vegi or beef would probably be good too)
A big pinch of salt, pepper, oregano, and basil
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 can mushrooms (smaller can, drained)
1/2 liter milk

Put the water, boulion cubes, spices and mushrooms in a pressure cooker. Heat on high and stir until boulion cubes start to dissolve. Close the lid tightly and when it starts making noise, lower the temperature to low. Pressure cook for about 20 minutes. When 20 minutes is up, open the pressure cooker and put the soup in the blender. Slowly add the milk and blend together. Yum!


If you're paranoid about spoiled food like I am, you can boil the milk ahead of time to make sure it's good. Not really necessary for taste, but who wants to ruin a soup with spoiled milk?

Okay, so what was my big mistake? I left the pressure cooker going for about 40 minutes. It started smelling a little different, so I took it off right away and opened it up... it wasn't burned, but there was no liquid left and the mushrooms were stuck in this brown stuff on the bottom. I panicked a bit because this was all the food in my house for lunch and I quickly added some water and stirred. I scraped all the stuff off the bottom and stirred it into the water which started to look more broth-like. Then I put it in the blender (it started smelling more broth-like too which was good) and followed the steps with the milk. It's still good!!! Yayyy. Very good actually! I'll DEFINITELY make this again... especially since it's easy to find canned mushrooms in my town. I love mushrooms, but not the rubbery, canned kind. Making a soup like this takes away that aspect and you still get the lovely flavor. :-)


In addition:
I added this later on because there are 2 things I would do slightly differently.

1. 1 more can of mushrooms... and perhaps less milk... I want it to be more mushroomy
2. Add a hint of butter for a creamier flavor... right now it's just milky