Vegan Mushroom Soup

Mother Day is next week and I am already thinking about what to cook, which tells you everything about how Carmen Delgado-Ortiz celebrates Mother Day — by cooking for everyone else. Eduardo says this defeats the purpose. Eduardo says on Mother Day the mother is supposed to rest and be served. Eduardo does not understand that cooking IS how I celebrate. Cooking is how I mother. If I am sitting at a table being served, I am not mothering, I am waiting, and Carmen does not wait well.

But this year I am doing something different. I am making Luz Maria recipes — specifically, her carne guisada, the beef stew she made on Wednesday nights in the Bayamon house when the week was long and the budget was short and she needed to feed nine people with two pounds of beef and a prayer. That stew was magic, mi amor. Tough chuck braised low and slow in sofrito and tomato sauce and olives until the meat dissolved on your tongue and the gravy was thick enough to hold a spoon upright. I have not made it in years. I am making it next Sunday, and I am calling Mami while I cook so she can correct me in real time, because Luz Maria correcting my cooking is her version of a Mother Day hug.

At the hospital this week we had a new patient on the cardiac floor — a Dominican man, eighties, who refused to eat the hospital food. His daughter came to me, desperate. He will not eat anything. I went to see him. I sat down. I said, Senor, what do you want to eat? He said, Mangu. So I made him mangu — mashed green plantains with butter and oil and sauteed red onion — right there in the hospital kitchen, off-menu, against approximately fourteen regulations. He ate every bite. He cried. His daughter cried. I went back to my office and wrote up the incident report myself because I believe in breaking rules and also in documenting when you break them.

The hospital administration sent me an email about unauthorized menu modifications. I sent them a reply about patient satisfaction scores and the healing properties of culturally appropriate food. They did not respond. I won.

Tonight I practiced the carne guisada. Eduardo tasted it and said, It is good. I said, It is not good enough. It is not Mami level yet. It needs more time. It needs more love. Some things cannot be rushed. Most things worth eating cannot be rushed. Patience, mi amor. Patience and sofrito. That is the secret to everything.

So after all that — the mashed plantains, the emails I should not have sent, the carne guisada that is getting closer but is not there yet — I needed something different. Something quiet. Vegan mushroom soup is not a fight; it is a conversation. You chop, you simmer, you blend the cashews into something that has no business being that creamy, and for forty minutes nobody sends you a single email about unauthorized menu modifications. That is its own kind of healing.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsalted cashews
1 medium yellow onion
3 celery ribs
2 medium carrots
1 pound mushrooms: cremini (aka baby bella) or a mix of baby bella and shiitake
3 garlic cloves
4 tablespoons olive oil
8 cups vegetable broth
1 cup dry pearled barley or farro (make sure it is pearled), or white rice for gluten free
1 teaspoon each garlic powder and dried thyme
1 tablespoon each dried oregano and dried dill
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt + 1/4 teaspoon
Fresh ground black pepper
1 tablespoon soy sauce (or smoked shoyu), or more salt to taste
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Instructions

Soak the cashews. Place the cashews in a bowl and cover them with water. Leave them to soak while you make the recipe.
Prep the vegetables. Dice the onion. Thinly slice the celery. Peel and dice the carrots. Clean the mushrooms and slice them (if you’re using shiitake, make sure to remove the tough stems). Mince the garlic.
Sauté the aromatics. Add the olive oil to a Dutch oven or soup pot. Add the onion, celery and carrot and cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes until lightly browned. Add mushrooms, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and stir for 2 minutes.
Simmer the soup. Add the vegetable broth, barley, garlic powder, thyme, oregano, dill, kosher salt, and black pepper. Bring to a simmer. Cover the pot and simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes until the barley or farro is tender, stirring occasionally.
Blend for creaminess. Using a liquid cup measure, carefully remove 2 cups of the hot soup (including broth, veggies and barley) to a blender. Drain the cashews and add them to the blender, along with the cornstarch and soy sauce. Blend on high for about 1 minute until creamy. Then pour the creamy mixture back into the soup and simmer on low heat for about 5 minutes until thickened.
Serve and store. Enjoy warm. Stores refrigerated for 3 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Vegan Mushroom Soup — Patience, Sofrito, and the Slow Work of Getting It Right