Two times the creaminess: Cream of Mushroom & Cream of Wild Rice

It's a long story, a story I'll tell more in my next post. Last Christmas, I made my mom a homemade cook book. She would keep her recipes, which were written on little note cards or spinets of paper, scrambled in an old shoe box in the cupboard. So I took them and rewrote them into a little note book. As I was doing this I realized just how many old recipe called for the convenience of canned goods. And they all started with "cream of....".

As you'll find out this sparked my quest to remake all of my childhood favorites and Minnesota classics into newer, vegetarian friendly and healthier versions on there former selves. It's about time my mom and grandma's cook books got an update.

So here is a dairy free version of two soup's you'll be needing in the next post.

Cream o' Mushroom Soup (adapted from here)

• 3/4 lb sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1T Earth Balance
• 3c vegetable broth
• 2T flour
• 1c Tofuffi Better Than Sour Cream
• 1 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large stock pot saute mushrooms, onion garlic and Earth Balance over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes or until soft.

Add the vegetable broth and reduce heat. Simmer for 45 minutes.

Stir in the remaining ingredients and simmer 20 - 30 minutes longer until soup thickens.

Cream o' Wild Rice Soup (recipe slightly adapted from here)

• 2T Earth Balance
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 5T flour
• 3c vegetable broth
• 2c unsweetened almond milk
• 2c cooked wild rice
• 1 medium carrot, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• Dash cayenne pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste

In stockpot melt Earth Balance over medium heat. Toss in onions and saute 3 to 5 minutes or until soft. Add in flour and combine well. Pour in vegetable broth and reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

While broth is simmering, heat but do not boil almond milk. Pour into the broth mixture.

Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for a minimum of 20 minutes, but no more than 2 hours. I did 1 hour. (P.S. my meat eating husband really enjoyed this soup!)