What a hearty, satisfying mushroom soup - made from wild Shaggy Parasols foraged in my yard. You could have this too, if you get to know these great mushrooms!
1. Foraging Shaggy Parasols
I wasn't kidding when I said, in an earlier post, that I've been harvesting a lot of Shaggy Parasols this fall. This is only one of four different harvests of Shaggy Parasols I've made here at Haphazard Homestead since the start of November. It was my the biggest haul yet, though - so you know I was excited about it!
There are several different species of mushrooms that are considered "Shaggy Parasols". The ones in my yard are Chlorophyllum brunneum. I'll make a separate post with more about identifying these mushrooms. Some of these mushrooms were old enough that taller ones had already dropped spores on top of their fellow mushrooms. I could easily tell, in the field, that their spores were white. That's the key thing I needed to know to make sure I didn't get the wrong kind of Shaggy Parasol.
These mushrooms were growing around a pile of brush. Some were in great shape, so I used them in a nice salad. But some of the mushrooms were in a little more "rough" shape - meaning that a few bugs had gotten into them. That's the reality facing a mushroom forager! Does that mean they are no good? Not always -- it depends on the kind of mushroom and how bad the damage is.
2. Prepping the Parasols
Here are mushrooms I ended up bringing back to my kitchen. The caps are still nice and solid. But underneath, I could see some little insect larvae - mostly in the gills. So I scraped the gills off the underside of the caps. Now they didn't look too bad. But I wanted to be sure, so I used an old mushroom forager trick - soaking the mushrooms in salt water to drive out any remaining insects.
I cut the mushrooms into pieces no more an a half-inch to one inch across. I put them all in a bowl of salt water. For this batch, I used about 1 Tablespoon of salt for about 1 cup of warm water. Shaggy Parasols don't have a lot of water in them, so they want to float! I let them soak for about 4 hours, until the mushrooms had soaked up the salt water. The water turns brown, but that's OK. The little larvae are in the water, too - not in the mushrooms any more. So now all that's needed is to rinse off the mushrooms.
3. Cooking the Soup
Have you figured out why I decided to make soup out of these mushrooms? Shaggy Parasols have to be well-cooked. If I would saute these small pieces, they would shrink up and leave me with only little bits. A soup lets me cook them all the way through, without losing their substance. And Shaggy Parasols have a strong, traditional mushroom flavor. So their flavor doesn't get lost when they are mixed with other ingredients.
This is an easy soup. I chopped some potatoes and an onion. I sauteed the onions and the Shaggy Parasols in a little olive oil, until the onions were soft and translucent. I added the potatoes and covered them all with water. I topped that with wild chives that I foraged, too. I cooked it until the potatoes were soft. By this time, the mushrooms turn a deep brown and are fully cooked. Then I set it all aside to cool.
Once the soup was cool, I put it all in a blender. I ran the blender on high until it all became thick and creamy. A food processor would work, too. I didn't add any milk, but that, or chicken broth, would be good at this stage, too. Neither one is needed, though, because I like having the most Shaggy Parasol flavor that I can get!
To serve my Cream of Shaggy Parasol Mushroom Soup, I reheated it on low. I put more feral chives, chopped fine, on top. I served it with slices of homegrown heirloom tomato and Italian Roaster pepper. That tomato has been ripening slowly since I picked it way back in early October. I picked the last of my peppers last week. I added some Brie cheese and tortilla chips -- and that is a great, great lunch! Perfect for a rainy November day here in the US Pacific Northwest!
What Do You Think?
I hope every one of you gets to try Shaggy Parasol soup some time! It's great! Have you seen any wild mushrooms this fall? Can you identify any wild mushrooms? Do you eat any wild mushrooms? What's your favorite wild mushroom to eat? I want to know!
I write about foraging because I believe that we can all have lives that are richer, more secure, more grounded, and more interesting by getting to know the plants and the land around us – in our yards, our parks, and our wilderness.
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