Quick Easy Vegan Mushroom Soup

Lightly creamy, full of mushroom flavor, with lashings of chives and an optional drizzle of truffle oil, this simple yet decadent homemade vegan mushroom soup comes together in under half an hour and is the mushroom soup recipe you’ve been waiting for!

Mushroom soup is a great light starter or the perfect lunch or light dinner when paired with a side dish.

If you are doing a whole 30, are off gluten, or just want something a bit lighter and healthier you can pair it with a hearty salad such as this lemony Brussels sprouts and kale salad, or toss some sweet potatoes and spinach with my Whole 30 balsamic mustard dressing.

It’s also perfect for pairing with a good quality crusty homemade bread such as my vegan Irish soda bread, easy tomato bread, or these beautiful vegan dinner rolls.

How long does homemade mushroom soup last?

As with most vegan recipes, they last a heck of a lot longer than usual, so you can keep this mushroom soup in the fridge for at least two weeks, although the flavour will get stronger the longer it sits.

You can freeze it forever basically, well, six months if you really want to play it safe. The coconut milk won’t split either if you reheat it or defrost it fast.

Is this soup healthy?

“Healthy” is a very subjective word (how long is a piece of string?) and not one I love to apply to recipes because too much of anything is not good for you, and everything in moderation.

But long story short, yes. Mushrooms soups can be a great addition to your diet because they pack more mushrooms in than you could eat in one sitting normally. Which is amazing because Mushrooms are VERY VERY VERY good for you.

Plus add in some healthy fats from coconut milk and olive oil, garlic, onions, a potato (yes, you read that right, the SUPER SECRET NOT-SO SECRET INGREDIENT), and plenty of chives, and this is one healthy flavour bomb.

The only points you could possibly quibble on here are that there is some vegetable stock used, which could be high in sodium depending on which brand you use or whether you use homemade stock.

The health benefits of mushrooms

Mushrooms are incredibly healthy for you. When I was a teenager my brother hated mushrooms and read somewhere that they had no nutritional value, and gleefully declared he would henceforth never eat another mushroom again.

Just goes to show you, you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the Internet folks (I say this somewhat ironically because hey, guess where we are, on the Internet…).

In particular, baby portobello mushrooms, which are used in this recipe, are pretty much a nutritional powerhouse (in general the darker the mushroom the more vitamins and minerals it contains).

Baby portobello mushrooms are:

• Low in calories, fat and salt.
• Provide plenty of riboflavin.
• Contain loads of Copper, Potassium and Selenium.
• Half a cup will give you 100% of your daily Vitamin D needs.
• Provide antioxidants.

Ingredients and substitutions

Okay so before we get into the nitty-gritty of how to make a steaming bowl of homemade veggie mushroom soup, let’s check if you have the ingredients if you can get them, and possible substitutions.

To make this soup you will need:

• Olive oil
• Onions
• Garlic
• Baby portobello mushrooms
• A big potato
• Vegetable stock
• Coconut milk
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Fresh chives
• Truffle oil (optional)

So now let’s talk substitutions. What can you substitute easily, what can you change with a bit more difficulty, and what should you NEVER change if you want to get similar tasty soup results.

Ingredient	Substitute?
Olive oil	I prefer olive oil for the depth of flavour it adds, its Whole30 compliancy, and cos heck I live in Spain. But you can substitute it with coconut oil, avocado oil, or a neutral-flavoured oil such as canola oil or sunflower oil.
Onions	Nope. Don’t substitute. They add substance and a lot of flavour.
Garlic	Supposedly, you can substitute a clove of garlic with 1/8th a teaspoon of garlic, but I really don’t find the taste anywhere the same. In theory, you could sub out the garlic in this recipe for 1/2 a tsp of dried garlic granules. In practice, don’t do it unless you are DESPERATE.
Baby Portobello mushrooms	Seriously, unless it’s a Shiitake or a proper big “adult” Portobello, or some baby Portobellos that were grown outside and in season, you could probably substitute these for chestnut mushrooms, or even fresh white button mushrooms. The catch is you can’t use frozen, it would totally throw off the liquid-solid ratio (but hey, you do you, necessity is the mother of invention).
A big potato	I mean, technically you could sub this with 1tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot starch dissolved in cold water and added later, but why would you? Sorry, I’m Irish, can’t comprehend a household with NO POTATOES!
Vegetable stock	Use your favourite stock, or use a stock cube to the appropriate ratio on the packet dissolved in water to produce the amount of stock you need. You could totally do plain water as well, but you’d be removing one of the “layers” of flavour that give the soup depth. If you do use a stock cube make sure it’s a high-quality one, or Whole 30 compliant if that0s your thing, nothing like a cheap claggy stock cube full of fillers to ruin a homemade soup.
Coconut milk	If you don’t have coconut milk on hand you can substitute with coconut cream in a ratio of 1:4 as in 1 cup of coconut cream is equal to 4 cups of coconut milk, making up the missing liquid with water. Hence to replace the 1/2 cup of coconut milk in this recipe you could add 1/8 cup of coconut cream and 3/8 cup of water. Alternatively, you could use any plant-based cream without a strong flavour, or if you’re not vegan, straight-up cooking cream, creme fraiche or sour cream.
Salt	With low-sodium salt, or try none if your stock is salty.
Freshly ground black pepper	With dried ground black pepper to taste. Be warned, ground black pepper is approximately four times more “potent” and “spicier” than freshly ground.
Fresh chives	This can’t really be substituted, dried chives do not rehydrate properly and are only suitable for spreads where they add texture. If you are really desperate, you could substitute with finely chopped spring onions (the green part, not the white part) or garlic chives.
Truffle oil (optional)	This is totally optional and adds an amazing depth, but if you don’t have it, don’t replace it with truffle salt or grated truffle.

How to make this tasty vegan mushroom soup

As with all my recipes, I’ll give you the slightly longer version here with process photos so you can check you’re not going awry if you have any doubts, and a quicker version you can glance at while cooking in the recipe card below.

Step one is to finely chop the onions and mince the garlic and slowly cook them together over a medium heat for ten minutes until soft and golden. It’s okay if they brown slightly but don’t let them cook more than that or they will make the soup bitter.

Add the finely chopped mushrooms and turn up the heat to high. Cook for five minutes or until most of the moisture released by the mushrooms has evaporated. Don’t worry, you don’t need to cook them completely dry. FYI I totally use my food processor to chop the onions, garlic and mushrooms, so if you have one I advise doing that.

Add the stock, salt, freshly ground black pepper and the roughly diced potato and bring to the boil. Lower to a lively simmer for ten minutes.

Take off the heat, add in the coconut milk, and blend with a hand blender. Mix in most of the chives and sprinkle the remaining amount on the top for garnish. Drizzle with truffle oil (optional) and grind more black pepper over the soup.

If you would like a soup with more of a cream of mushroom soup consistency, simply add more coconut milk, 1/4 cup at a time, to taste.

Serve immediately if garnished. If you wish to save the soup for later just reserve a tablespoon of the chives for garnish, and add them, the truffle oil and extra ground pepper just before serving.

Want more soup recipes?

I mean, who doesn’t like a good comforting soup? Not to worry, I’ve got you covered with some other delicious vegan soups:

• Spicy Indian tomato soup
• Roasted red pepper bisque
• Light lemon lentil soup
• Hot and sour vegetable soup

Did you make this recipe?

I love hearing from you guys and getting your feedback, and I personally check every message I receive. You could leave a star rating in the recipe card, a comment in the comment section, check out my Pinterest to leave ratings there, connect with me on Facebook, or tag me in a picture of your meal on Instagram (@the_fiery_vegetarian).