I recently had the pleasure of visiting Jacques in his Connecticut home, and he served us a wonderful mushroom soup with truffles. I wanted to recreate the dish with my own indigenous spin, using all plant-based, foraged and homegrown ingredients.

Mushroom Velouté

Recipe details

Serves

4-6

For the Mushroom Velouté

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
  • 1 tablespoon thinly sliced garlic
  • 1 large spring onion, both white and green part, chopped
  • 1 pound fresh woodland mushrooms, coarsely chopped
  • 1 ounce dried wild mushrooms
  • 4 cups mushroom stock, recipe follows
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ cups pepita milk, recipe follows
  • 2 tablespoons cassava or tapioca flour
  • ⅓ cup raw pepitas, toasted
  • Bergamot flowers, for garnish, optional
  • Sliced West Coast truffle, for garnish, optional

Method

  1. Heat the sunflower oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, onion and fresh mushrooms and sauté, stirring until translucent, about 2 minutes.
  2. Add the dried mushrooms, mushroom stock and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently until everything is tender, about 1 hour.
  3. Whisk in 1 cup of the pepita milk and bring to a low simmer. Whisk the cassava flour into the remaining pepita milk to make a slurry; then slowly whisk enough slurry to thicken the soup. Cook gently as it thickens, but do not allow the soup to boil as the pepita milk might break or curdle. Add more slurry as needed. Taste and add more salt if necessary.
  4. Ladle the soup into warm bowls and garnish with the toasted pepitas, bergamot flowers or West Coast truffles and serve.

For the Mushroom Stock

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons sunflower oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 spring onion, coarsely chopped
  • 1 rib celery, coarsely chopped
  • 6 ounces fresh mushrooms, coarsely chopped
  • 2 ounces dried wild mushrooms
  • ¼ cup white cedar fronds, coarsely chopped*
  • 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
  • 6 cups water
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ cup bergamot, fresh coarsely chopped, optional

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic, onion, celery and fresh mushrooms and sauté until tender, about 3 minutes.  Add the dry mushrooms, cedar fronds, maple syrup, water and salt and bring to a light boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 1 ½ hours. Allow the stock to cool and strain through a fine mesh strainer.

For the Pepita Milk

Ingredients

  • 1 cup raw pepitas
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Method

  1. In the bowl of a blender combine the pepitas, water, maple syrup and salt. Blend until very smooth, about 2 minutes on high. Strain through a fine mesh strainer or double layers of cheesecloth.

White cedar leaves are rich in vitamin C, and First Nations have been using it to fight infections for generations. When it is infused in the stock, it has a green, coniferous, slightly lemony taste, but know that a little goes a long way as it is a strong flavor, and it is not advised for those who are pregnant or for pets.