Chestnut Mushroom Soup

In this recipe for Chestnut Mushroom Soup I used 3 packets of organic mushrooms to get the maximum flavour. This is a quick soup to make full of flavour and good for vegans and vegetarians. These are the ingredients:
Ingredients
1 red onion chopped fine
1 leek chopped very fine
2 tablespoons of olive oil or 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
3 cloves of garlic chopped
3 cartons of mushrooms (1 lb 8oz or 750 gm) chopped
2 pints of stock ( I used homemade chicken stock but use a vegetable stock for a vegetarian version)
salt and pepper to taste
Method
1 Heat the oil or butter gently in a pan.
2. Add the onion, garlic and leek and cook, sweat gently for 10 minutes
3. Add the mushrooms and sweat with the lid on for 10 minutes
4. Add the stock and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the soup is cooked
5. Add salt and pepper to taste
6. Put all or part of the soup into a blender and puree. This depends on whether you want a smooth soup or a textured one.
Variations
Add fresh cream for cream of chestnut mushroom soup
Serve with crispy bacon
Serve with grated cheese
Serve with garlic bread
Add a spoonful of natural yogurt as a garnish
Garnish with raw sliced mushrooms
Garnish with fresh chopped herbs such as tarragon or coriander
Use 3 leeks to make it a leek and mushroom soup.
Vegetarians or vegans may want to add green soya beans or butter beans to get extra protein in the soup. I like to buy these in bags of ready cooked ones and frozen. They are great to add to soups in the last 10 minutes of cooking for extra protein or making the soup what I would call a meal soup.