Cream of Mushroom Soup with Spaghetti

Every year, my parents would let me have whatever I wanted for dinner on my birthday and every year I picked the same thing:  cream of mushroom soup with spaghetti.  Not a bowl of cream of mushroom soup and a plate of spaghetti, cream of mushroom soup on the spaghetti.  It was pretty awesome.  And I always ate it with "the magical bamboo fork," which I got from my grandmother, who got it as a free sample in the post or something like that.

I decided to recreate my favourite childhood dish this afternoon.  Of course, you are free to have the soup on its own.  It's delicious either way!  I'll include directions for a richer version of the mushroom soup as well as a more authentic version (minus the tinny canned flavour).

In a frying pan, fry some onions in olive oil until they start to turn clear.  Add some chopped mushrooms and garlic and fry until everything is soft.  (To make this more 'authentic,' chop everything up into teeny tiny pieces.)

*This is a great base for a cream-of-anything soup right here:*  In a sauce pan or pot, make béchamel sauce (scroll down for the béchamel directions -- there are also some tips for making it gluten-free).  Add extra non-dairy milk (I prefer coconut or soy for this) or water to thin the sauce to a soup-like consistency.  Add some sage, thyme, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and a dollop of tahini paste (skip all of these for the more authentic version). 

Now it is time to add your onions, mushrooms, and garlic to the soup.  Deglase your pan with a little dry sherry or dry vermouth (or a little water if you're either not the boozing type or going for the more traditional canned soup taste) and pour that into your soup, as well.  And salt and black pepper.  Add a lot of salt if you are going for the canned soup version.

Stir everything up a bit more and then add some mashed or puréed navy (haricot) beans.  Skip this if you are doing the canned soup version.

Now simmer this on low and let the seasonings mingle.   Your mushroom flavour will really start to come out if you just let the soup hang out and simmer on the stove for a while.

Okay, now it's time to make spaghetti.  I don't need to tell you how to do that, do I?  When the spaghetti's ready, dish it up and pour the soup right on over it. 

The Magical Bamboo Fork—Of course, I still have it!