Chunky Artichoke Mushroom Soup

I totally should have taken a picture.

I realize this now.

But now I'm home, it's dark out, and all the soup has been eaten already.
So it's too late for pictures.

You'll just have to take my word for it. I made an awesome soup today:

Here’s what you’ll want to have on hand:

1. Potatoes – I used 3 medium russets.

2. Olive oil – IDK, how much is a splash?

3. Onion – I like yellow or white for this soup, but I bet leeks would be good too.

4. Garlic – I like the pre-minced kind because I go through garlic like Sherman through Georgia (as my boss would say).

5. Thyme – maybe a tablespoon?

6. Salt & pepper – I sprinkle enough to give the bottom of the pan a sparse but even layer.

7. Veggie base – this is optional. I just added a large spoonful.

8. Water – lots. Preferably preheated, but not necessarily.

9. Mushrooms – I used 2-3 cups’ worth.

10. Artichokes – I use canned (there I said it). It’s a really big can. We’re talking like gallon-of-milk sized.

11. A blender. No really.

12. A lemon, but only for its juice so you could also just get about a quarter cup of lemon juice, but not the processed kind because that’s gross.

13. Spinach. There’s no such thing as too much. I threw in 3 overflowing handfuls. You could also use kale. It’s surprisingly good – dareIsay: kale is even better than spinach in this particular soup.

Here’s the process:

Peel and slice some potatoes. You can cut them however you want. I just slice them because it’s fast to do and they cook faster if they’re thin. They’re going to get liquefied anyway.

Sauté some onions and garlic in olive oil.

Throw in some thyme, along with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Toss in the potatoes and immediately add just enough water to cover them.

You can add some base if you want it, too.

Cover. Turn that sucker up and let it boil.

Meanwhile, slice up some mushrooms and prep your artichokes.
In my case, prepping the artichokes involved opening the can and casually draining it.

When the potatoes are soft, add just a few of your artichokes.

Cook all that for a few more minutes, then puree your soup in that blender (or I suppose you could use an immersion blender).

Put your puree right back in the same pot (unless you used an immersion blender, then nevermind).

Add the rest of your artichokes, all those sliced mushrooms, and a lemon’s worth of lemon juice.

Cover all the new veggies with more water and let it all simmer til tasty, maybe 15 minutes or so.

You can boil some water in a teapot while you’re waiting.

Turn the heat off when your veggies are cooked, then stir your spinach or kale in, dump some of that boiling water from your teapot in there and cover that pot back up. (This is where I just put in enough water to get the juice-to-stuff ratio where I like for soups.) Give it a couple minutes, then eat. 

As written, this recipe happens to be gluten-free and vegan, but if you wanted it meatier you could totally add cooked chicken to it and it would be amazing. You could also replace the veggie base with chicken base.

*"Base" is basically just condensed stock. If you don't have veggie or chicken base, just use stock in place of both the base and the water. You won't want to add water if you use stock! Or you could just leave it out entirely.

Now, keep in mind that I'm making food for a lunch service at a restaurant. This'll make a big batch. I don't know how many servings exactly, but it's a big ol' pot. You should probably scale this down if you're not trying to serve half the town or have leftovers for weeks.