Hungarian Mushroom and Garlic Soup

A personal favourite rich in flavour, soul-satisfying, pot of pleasure

Golden mushroom magic. Hungarian Mushroom and Garlic Soup. Food and photo by author. All photos by author.

I’m a soup guy, always have been and it’s a sad day when I don’t have my thermos holding two servings of soup du jour for my work lunch. Canned soups are okay…barely, and in a pinch, the instant ramen cups get me through, but nothing compares to a proper soup made from scratch.

For several years, my daily life revolved around soups. I stood in front of three massive kettles, one always simmering a stock while I rotated the other two through soups from bisques to consommés for the hotel property I cooked for.

But my love for soups began where it should, in my mother’s kitchen. Hungarians are famous for many things, from inventing the Rubik’s cube to the ballpoint pen and dozens of common to remarkable advances in modern civilization. Soup, however, was where it all began. The warrior peasants of the Pannonian Plains hunkered around fire pits where iron rods formed a frame with a wide pot hanging above the flames. In Hungary, everything could be made into a soup, and few have done it better.

It’s been quite a while since I made this Hungarian mushroom soup, but a recent Costco outing offered inspiration. Among the megastore’s multitude of shelves, I saw a new product: lightly seasoned mushroom…