Creamy Mushroom Soup with Potato and Chickpea

Ingredients

• 400 g champignon
• 1 x yellow onion
• 6 clove garlic
• ½ x leeks
• 400 g potatoes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 1 dl dry white wine
• 1 pinch dried thyme
• 1 can chickpeas
• 3 dl vegetable broth
• 3 tbsp crème fraîche
• 1 handful leaf parsley
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. Clean the mushrooms as needed. Here in France I often buy organic mushrooms with a lot of dirt on them, so I give them a good trim and cleaning. If your mushrooms are already prepped its enough to rinse them in water before they are dried and sliced.
2. Prepare the vegetables: Finely slice the onion and garlic. Rinse the leek well between the layers before it`s sliced. Both the white and the green part of the leek can be used, but the white parts gives the soup a nicer colour and a little softer texture.
3. Clean the potatoes. If they have thin peel I normally keep it. Dice and add to a bowl of cold water.
4. Heat up olive oil in a large pot. Sauté the mushrooms on relatively high heat (it`s gonna look like way too much mushrooms) until the water from the mushrooms has been released and reduced. Add a knob of butter and sprinkle over some salt and black pepper and cook until the mushrooms has started to get a little colour.
5. Decrease the heat and add onion, garlic and leek to the pot. Simmer on medium/low heat until everything is soft, about 10 minutes.
6. Add white wine and dry thyme to the pot and reduce completely.
7. Drain the chickpeas and rinse in cold water. Drain the water from the potatoes and add both potatoes and chickpeas to the pot. Cover with stock and/or water and let simmer until everything is soft.
8. Take some ladles, or a much as you would like, of the soup and blend until smooth with a immersion blender or a blender. Add back to the pot. You can blend the whole thing if you prefer a completely smooth soup. Add water until you have the texture you prefer.
9. Stir in the crème fraîche and finely chopped parsley (or any soft herb you like) before adding salt, freshly ground black pepper and a little squeeze of lemon juice to taste. Garnish with a drizzle of good olive oil and fresh herbs before serving.