October 2, 2018

Cream of Chicken of the Woods Mushroom Soup

Cream of mushroom soup is a beloved classic. So is cream of chicken soup. Imagine if you could have both, and have it still be vegan? From this was born my vegan cream of chicken of the woods mushroom soup. Creamy, and velvety on your tongue this broth is coconut-based, but the coconut flavor is not what you taste. The unique, chicken-like taste of the wild chicken of the woods mushroom blends delicately with the carrots, celery, onion and garlic vegetable base of the soup. The fresh parsley garnish at the end completes this warm, comforting soup- perfect for a chilly autumn day after a hike through the woods.

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Foraging Chicken of the Woods

Chicken of the Woods is one of the most identifiable and unique tasting wild mushrooms there is. They have a taste and texture that is surprisingly similar to chicken- or perhaps if a chicken and a mushroom were combined- and it’s a good substitute for chicken (if chicken is something you miss). They are fairly large, and appear in varying shades of bright orange and yellow. The bottom side has pores (small holes), not gills (like a common oyster or portabello mushroom). They grow on dead or dying trees and have no real stem; ones that appear to grow out of the ground may be growing on buried roots in shelf-like clusters or rosettes. They can be found most commonly in the fall, and are very widespread. Young species are better, as they become more brittle and woody as they age. Always make sure to cook and clean mushrooms that you find, for safety’s sake.

Disclaimer: When foraging wild mushrooms, you are responsible to verify beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have positively identified that mushroom. While I take responsibility for the accuracy of the information on this site, I can not take responsibility for the identification of the mushrooms you’ve foraged. Please consult multiple resources (books, websites, and human experts) to verify the identification of your mushroom.

A Spot for Older Chickens

One thing I appreciate about this cream of chicken of the woods mushrooms soup is you don’t need the freshest of mushrooms to get a tasty meal. Anything very old, rotten, and buggy is of course off the table, but you don’t need a super young- shall we say, spring chicken, to get a delicious soup. One of the mushrooms I used was a little older, and dry, not the juicy mushroom I would use for my Chicken of the Woods Picatta or Vegan Chicken of the Woods Pad Kee Mao, but in the creamy warm soup environment it took on more moisture than it started with. So if you wish you had found that chicken just a day or two earlier, chicken of the woods mushroom soup might be your recipe (although you could also try my Butter Chicken of the Woods).

Making this Cream of Chicken of the Woods Mushroom Soup

Aside from our lovely mushrooms, this chicken of the woods soup recipe is fairly basic. The first step is shredding the mushrooms. Chicken of the woods grow outward from the center, and are easily pulled apart down the length. For this chicken of the woods mushroom soup, we want our shreds to be in smaller, more bite-sized pieces, so I started by cutting against the grain into strip about 1-inch in width. From that point, just go down the mushroom, shredding with the grain until you have a big pile of shredded chicken of the woods. The mushrooms are then sauteed with carrots, onion, celery, dried thyme and garlic to give a wonderful, savory and herbaceous flavor (at the end parsley is added, which will really add to the fresh herbiness of it all). The cream is brought to the chicken of the woods mushroom soup in two ways- it is thickened, using a combination of flour and vegan butter, and coconut milk is used to help maximize the creaminess. From there, you’re a few minutes simmer away from enjoying this toasty vegan cream of chicken of the woods mushroom soup.