This Creamy Vegan Mushroom Soup is the most perfect holiday soup! It’s incredibly velvety and rich like a bisque with a deep savory flavor that will win over all of your guests (including omnivores).
It’s also nutrient-dense thanks to a generous amount of mushrooms, fresh herbs, garlic, and cashews. No cream or dairy needed for this dreamy cream of mushroom soup.
And despite being gourmet and fancy enough for a dinner party, this mushroom soup comes together easily and reheats well, making it a great meal prep option.
Table of Contents
1. Why this recipe works
2. Ingredient notes
3. Step-by-step instructions
4. Tips for making this recipe
5. Frequently Asked Questions
6. Recipe card with notes
Why this recipe works
A velvety bisque texture.
Three techniques give this vegan mushroom soup a luxurious, velvety consistency and rich mouthfeel that will have your guests convinced it’s made with cream.
First, a portion of the soup is blended. This is an easy way to creamify any soup or stew, and a technique I use often, like in my Creamy White Bean Soup. Not all of the soup is blended though, so you get textural variation: silky smooth with bites of chewy mushrooms, the best of both worlds.
Second, a half cup of raw cashews are added to the portion of soup that gets blended. As you may know, raw cashews, when blended, add an incredibly creamy texture and richness.
Third, the recipe doesn’t add too much vegetable broth (you can always thin the soup out later if you wish).
Serious savory flavor.
Mushrooms naturally have a meaty depth, but this is no ordinary mushroom soup. It’s an umami powerhouse thanks to a mixture of fresh mushrooms, mushroom stock made from dried mushrooms, soy sauce and miso paste.
Each spoon is packed with a layered depth of flavor and coats your whole mouth with a rich, savory mouthfeel (the essence of umami!). Even my mushroom-averse partner was floored when he tried it and asked to have a big bowl of it for dinner.
PS: If you love the sound of these flavors, don’t miss out on my rich and super savory Mushroom Gravy during the holidays.
Gourmet but easy.
The flavors and textures in this soup will make your taste buds sing. It’s fancy enough to serve at any dinner party, and is particularly perfect as a starter for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.
At the same time, this vegan mushroom soup is easy to make, so you can even make it for a weeknight dinner if you want. It reheats fabulously, so it’s a great option to make on a Sunday or Monday and enjoy for a few days (if it lasts that long!).
Ingredient notes
Fresh mushrooms. Using a blend of different mushrooms adds varying textures to this creamy soup, so it’s far from a one-note cream of mushroom soup.
We love this soup with a mix of shiitake mushrooms and oyster mushrooms or maitake mushrooms, in addition to your everyday brown button mushrooms.
Where to buy: You can find a large selection of mushroom varieties at Asian grocery stores, farmers markets, and well-stocked grocery stores like Whole Foods or Sprouts.
Dried mushrooms + mushroom stock (optional). All mushrooms are rich in umami, but dried mushrooms are particularly so. Here, dried mushrooms are briefly soaked in water, then the resulting mushroom stock is added to the soup (in addition to veg broth) for enhanced savoriness.
The rehydrated dried shrooms are also added to the soup along with the fresh mushrooms.
Substitute: If you don’t have dried mushrooms or want to skip this step, this vegan mushroom soup is still great without them. For details, check out the FAQ section below.
Alternatively, if you have my cookbook, The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook, there’s an excellent mushroom broth in Chapter 1 that would make this soup sing even more!
Soy sauce & miso. Mushrooms are already savory superstars, but when you add fermented soy products (e.g., soy sauce and miso), you really supercharge the flavor. Each bite is packed with a rich depth of flavor that’s often missing in plant-based food.
Vegetable broth. Use the best-quality vegetable broth available to you. An excellent store-bought option we love is from the Imagine Organic brand. If you have Better than Bouillon at home, you can use that as well (use a pinch less of salt).
Cashews. Blended and soaked raw cashews bring a velvety, bisque-like texture and make it feel more substantial than a side dish soup. No need to soak the cashews either!
Substitute: Allergic? Check out the FAQ section below.
Fresh herbs. Fresh thyme and rosemary add a lovely woodsy depth of flavor here.
Substitute: You can sub sage for either herb. If you don’t have access to fresh herbs, use a teaspoon each of the dried herbs, but it won’t have the same flavor.
Tip: Near the holidays, many grocery stores sell packages of “poultry herbs,” which combine rosemary and thyme with sage or marjoram, so you don’t have to buy all the herbs separately.
Step-by-step instructions
If using homemade mushroom stock, cover the dried mushrooms with room temperature water. Weight to submerge and soak for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid through a sieve, keeping the stock. Wash the rehydrated mushrooms well and slice.
For fresh mushrooms, slice them (e.g., cremini or shiitake) or tear them into pieces with your hands (e.g., oyster or maitake mushrooms).
In a Dutch oven or large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high. Add the diced onions and cook until starting to soften. Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Now add the vegan butter. Once melted, add the sliced/torn mushrooms (and rehydrated mushrooms, if using).
Cook for about 5 minutes, or until shrooms are softened. Pour in the white wine and scrape up any browned bits, simmering until the smell of alcohol has dissipated.
Pour in the vegetable broth and homemade mushroom stock (if using; don’t pour in the last tablespoon, as it’s sediment heavy). Add the bundle of herbs and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.
Scoop out 1/3 to 1/2 of the soup and transfer it to a stand blender. Add the cashews, soy sauce, and miso, and blend until the soup is creamy and smooth. Pour this blended soup into the remaining soup in the pot.
Stir well and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until the flavors have developed and soup has thickened a bit.
Tips for making this recipe
Use a variety of mushrooms.
Any time I make a mushroom-heavy dish, like vegan mushroom risotto or vegan mushroom stroganoff, I find I enjoy it most when I use at least two, if not more, different varieties of mushrooms.
This adds variation in texture as well as flavor (e.g., shiitakes are umami-rich and meaty, oyster mushrooms are more delicate, maitake mushrooms taste subtly like chicken).
And if chanterelle mushrooms are in season, if you can spring for a couple of those, they’re outrageously buttery and delicious (beware: they are pricy though).
If needed, soak the cashews briefly.
If you don’t have a high-powered blender, soak the cashews while you prep everything else. Just add them to a saucepan, cover with water, and boil for 10 minutes.
This ensures the cashews get fully pulverized when blended and you don’t end up with cashew bits in your soup.
If using dried mushrooms, get rid of the grit.
Please follow these steps so your soup is smooth and grit-free!
1) After soaking the dried mushrooms, strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve to get rid of any larger dirt particles.
2) To wash the rehydrated shrooms, add them to a bowl, cover with fresh water, and agitate them to release any dirt. Repeat a few times.
3) Finally, when adding mushroom stock to the soup, don’t pour in the last tablespoon, as it’s usually sediment-heavy.
Adjust the texture to your taste.
This soup is definitely on the creamy side, and thickens as it rests. If you want a thinner soup, add a bit more broth. When reheating leftovers, if desired, add a splash or two of vegetable broth or water to loosen.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, you can omit them and the soup will still be great, but make a few changes.
1) You won’t have any homemade mushroom stock, so use 4 cups (960 mL) vegetable broth instead of 3 cups (720 mL).
2) To compensate for the loss of flavor from the mushroom stock, I recommend adding 1/2 teaspoon porcini mushroom powder when you add the vegetable broth (affiliate link). It adds great savory depth of flavor to all kinds of soups, stews, and lentil dishes.
I haven’t tried this product, but a few of my readers have used Trader Joe’s multipurpose umami seasoning as a substitute for porcini mushroom powder in other recipes.
3) If you want to add extra mushrooms (since you’re not adding the rehydrated mushrooms), use 20 ounces (570g) of fresh mushrooms instead of 16 ounces. But this is totally optional.
Yes! Just be sure to use tamari or gluten-free soy sauce instead of standard soy sauce, which is fermented with wheat.
Replace the wine with 1/4 cup (60 mL) vegetable broth + 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar or white wine vinegar, or just skip this deglazing step.
You may want to finish the soup at the end with a squeeze of lemon juice or one of the above vinegars to brighten the soup.
If you’re okay using coconut milk, try 1 cup (120 mL) of “lite” coconut milk.
We did try a mixture of 1 cup ( cannellini beans and 1/2 cup (120 mL) creamy unsweetened plant-based milk. This worked decently, but it was less creamy and less magical in flavors and more bean-forward.
You could also try adding a boiled Russet potato.
After the soup simmers covered for 15 minutes, transfer 1/2 to 2/3 of the soup to a large bowl and set aside. Now use an immersion blender and blend the remaining soup in the pot until creamy. Pour the reserved unblended soup back in and stir to combine.
Personally, I eat it like a main dish, but always with a slice or two of good-quality toasted bread (a creamy soup loves a bread dipper!). I like serving a simple green salad on the side for good measure.
If you want to add some protein, a great pairing would be some cooked white beans, lightly dressed with olive oil, lemon zest and juice, salt, and pepper.
This is also a great soup to serve as a side dish for holiday dinners, like Thanksgiving or Christmas, or any kind of dinner party.
If you’re looking for a gourmet soup and salad pairing, either this Kale and Brussels Sprouts Salad or this Roasted Butternut Squash Kale Salad would be good!
Store cooled leftovers in the fridge for 5 to 6 days. You can freeze this soup, though the texture will be slightly different.
I like to freeze the soup in single-serve Souper Cubes (affiliate link) so they defrost very quickly.
If you love this Vegan Mushroom Soup as much as we do, please rate and review the recipe with your feedback below! It’s always very much appreciated :)
Creamy Vegan Mushroom Soup
Ingredients
- 1 oz (28g) dried porcini mushrooms or other dried mushrooms (optional)*
- 16 ounces fresh mushrooms, ideally a variety, such as cremini, shiitake, oyster and/or maitake**
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large sweet onion, finely chopped
- 8 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter (or more olive oil)
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- ½ cup (120 mL) dry white wine***
- Bouquet garni: 1 large sprig of rosemary, 2 sprigs of thyme, and 2 bay leaves****
- 3 cups (720 mL) good-quality vegetable broth (4 cups if not using homemade mushroom stock)
- ½ cup (70g) raw cashews
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste (or red miso for a more robust taste)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari (use tamari for GF)
- ¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard (optional)
- 1 small handful of fresh chives and/or parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Optional – make mushroom stock: Place the dried mushrooms in a bowl and cover with 1 ½ cups (360 mL) room temperature water. Place a smaller bowl or something heavy on top to ensure they stay submerged. Soak for 30 minutes, or until softened.
- Scoop out the mushrooms. Strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve to catch any sediment, reserving the stock.Add the rehydrated mushrooms to a bowl of water and agitate with your hands. Drain the water and repeat a few times until the sediment is gone. This ensures the grit won’t make it into the soup. Slice mushrooms and set aside.
- For fresh mushrooms like cremini and shiitake, slice them (remove shiitake stems). For oyster or maitake mushrooms, tear them into strips with your hands, discarding any tough ends.
- Heat a Dutch oven or soup pout with the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions with a pinch of salt, and saute for 4 to 5 minutes, or until starting to soften. Add the garlic and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Add the butter to the pan, and once melted, add the fresh mushrooms and rehydrated dried mushrooms, if using. Cook for about 5 minutes, until softened. Season with salt and pepper at the end.
- Pour in the white wine and use it to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot. Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the smell of alcohol has dissipated and some of the liquid has bubbled off.
- If using, pour in the mushroom stock but reserve the last tablespoon or so, as it’s usually sediment-heavy. Add the vegetable broth too (use 4 cups if not using mushroom stock). Add the bouquet garni and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Scoop out ⅓ to ½ of the soup (about 2 ½ cups or 550 to 600g), including some mushrooms but not the bouquet garni. Transfer this to a blender and add the cashews, miso and soy sauce. Start slowly then move to high speed and blend until smooth.
- Stir the blended soup back into the remaining soup in the pot. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until the flavors have developed and the soup has thickened slightly. Season with salt and pepper. If you want a slight pop of acidity, add the Dijon mustard. Remove the bouquet garni.
- Ladle soup into serving bowls. Top each with a tiny drizzle of good-quality olive oil, if a little extra richness is desired, and garnish with a small handful of chopped parsley/chives.
Notes
Recipe: Nisha Vora / Rainbow Plant Life | Photography: Megan Morello
Used frozen and defrosted soup today as stronganoff sauce with a fried and chopped Beyond Meat burger, served over noodles with a salad. Incredible!!
Christine, thank you for your awesome review! We’re so happy to hear that you enjoyed the soup.
what a great idea!
Delicious! The miso paste really takes it over the top. Will definitely be making this again.
We appreciate your feedback and support, Claire. Thank you for leaving a review!
Love this so much I am making two weeks in a row! Love you friend and so happy for you! Is it freezable?
So lovely to hear, Tess! You can freeze this soup, though the texture will be slightly different.
We like to freeze the soup in single-serve Souper Cubes (affiliate link) so they defrost very quickly.
Thanks for another knockout recipe! I made this for dinner last night for my husband and three older kids, 6, 5, and 3yo. Even though the 6yo isn’t a fan of mushrooms, she ended up enjoying it and ate every bite in her bowl! The small bit that was left tasted amazing reheated on the stove then today for lunch. :)
It’s always a compliment when we hear of kids loving the RPL recipes, Christina! Thank you so much for sharing, we’re happy the recipe was a hit with the whole family :)
I made this today and am blown away by the flavour, textures and creaminess. I am not a big mushroom fan so I am only eating an appetizer-sized bowl plus it is very rich. I am wondering if I can freeze this?
Hi Christine, lovely to hear you’re such a fan of the soup! You can freeze this soup, though the texture will be slightly different. We like to freeze the soup in single-serve Souper Cubes (affiliate link) so they defrost very quickly.
Delicious! 😋 Used a drizzle of Truffle oil and fresh chives to finish it and served it with buttery garlic bread. Thanks Nisha!!
Oooh, sounds lovely Mariann! Thank you for sharing!
This is luxury. It’s the most savory dish I’ve ever had. Perfect!
Awesome, Nick. Thanks for your comment and for taking the time to review!
Loved this! However my mixer was not able to blend the cashews perfectly, eventhough I soaked and cooked them. I wondered: would it be an option to use cashew butter instead? (Too get a better texture, but the same delicuous taste:) )
Hi Ulli, so sorry to hear this :/ And unfortunately cashew butter doesn’t work the same because it’s made using roasted cashews, not raw cashews.
Instead, if you’re okay using coconut milk, try 1 cup (120 mL) of “lite” coconut milk.
We did try a mixture of 1 cup ( cannellini beans and 1/2 cup (120 mL) creamy unsweetened plant-based milk. This worked decently, but it was less creamy and less magical in flavors and more bean-forward.
You could also try adding a boiled Russet potato.
Hope that helped!
Absolutely delicious !!
We’re happy you think so, Pat!
another umami-packed dish in every spoonful. the creaminess from the cashews is divine. using different kinds of mushrooms make it more flavorful. this is how every mushroom soup should taste and i won’t have it any other way again
Nisha, OMG! I just made this tonight for me and my (non-vegan) husband and it is one of the BEST soups I’ve ever had in my life! It was so easy to make and although I tweaked it a little (I didn’t have fresh thyme, so I added dry) it was fantastic! I used dried shitake, fresh shitake, fresh oyster, fresh baby portobello. I have to say that I would not hesitate to proudly serve this to any of my non-vegan friends…there’s no way anyone would know that it didn’t have cream and butter. So yummy! Love your channel and watch it all the time. I’ve been a vegan for about 3 years and I have used many of your recipes. Another of my favorites is the red lentil curry. Ohhhhh sooo gooood!
You’re so sweet, Mary! We’re so happy you two enjoyed the soup, tank you so much for taking the time to leave a review! :)
Amazing creamy soup. I knew I was going to make this soup, so when I was making a different dish that called for caramelized onions, I made a double batch of onions I think caramelized onions are so yummy. Using the water from the rehydrated mushrooms is a must! The cashews helps make it creamy and the flavor is spot on. I saw that Nisha suggested to use #soupercubes, so I did purchase them. This soup will be made many times over and over in the future.
Wow! This was absolutely delicious – and this from someone who simply tolerates mushrooms because the internet says they’re good for you. We had lions mane mushrooms from a CSA share, and added in oyster mushrooms and some cheaper crimini mushrooms. I didn’t have the dried ones so I used more mushrooms than called for and made a quick stock out of the bits I had chopped off the fresh mushrooms steeped in hot water instead. I didn’t have white wine either so I took Nisha’s video tip and added a 1/4 tsp of dijon mustard at the end. I never think such a small addition will make a difference but it really did add brightness and tanginess. This was a winner for all of us! Will definitely be making again!
This is so yummy! We really enjoyed this soup. The cashew cream came out perfect!!
Hi Leanne, we’re so happy you enjoyed this recipe so much! A perfect cashew cream leads to a delicious and creamy soup :)
I made this for supper tonight using 4 different types of mushrooms. It was devine!!! Unfortunately I used my food processor to purée instead of my immersion blender. So, it was not as smooth as I would hope. However, the taste was just incredible. This will be going into the rotation for sure!!!
Hi Tracey, so glad you enjoyed this recipe so much! The flavor from 4 different types of mushrooms had to have been incredible! Thanks for taking the time to leave a review :)
This recipe is fantastic! It had so much flavour, very possibly the best soup I’ve ever made. My husband loved it too. Thank you ❤️
Awesome, Therese. Thanks for your comment and for taking the time to review!
My husband and I loved this soup! We are “no oil” vegans, so we didn’t use the butter or any oil and it was still fabulous. We also threw in some spinach at the end and it worked wonderfully. This is definitely going into our favorites.
Thanks for the lovely feedback, Christine!
So glad to hear you used spinach!! I seriously considered it, but I wanted to give the recipe a try as is first. I always try recipes as written before I comment on them, but next time some spinach is going in!
Absolutely outstanding! This is a fantastic option if you’re trying to impress for a dinner party but I’ll also be making it on date night. Thank you, Nisha!
Awesome, Mary Beth. Thanks for your comment and for taking the time to review!
We had over-bought mushrooms, so I looked for a recipe like this to use most of them. And, I was craving soup. I looked through a lot of recipes before deciding on this one because my husband liked the idea of using miso, and I wanted to try the cashew thickening trick. I used coconut aminos instead of soy sauce.
I won’t lie. This took about 2 hours to make, most of it prep. I admit to being a slow chopper.
If I hadn’t used the dried mushrooms, would have been much quicker, but I found some at the Natural Grocers store this afternoon, so decided to do it that way. They did add depth. The cashews to thicken it are like magic. I’d never tried that before, but will remember this, as so many recipes use flour and I’m gluten free. I’m not actually vegan but don’t use much dairy as too much of it disagrees with me, so I used ghee instead of the vegan butter. I didn’t use the mustard. I also made 1/2 cup of wild rice blend on the side, and added it to the pot at the end, once it was soft. This added another texture that we wanted.
It’s tasty, but I will use more seasoning next time. I did use the fresh rosemary and thyme, and dried bay leaves. I added some Trader Joe’s Umami seasoning, but not enough. The first time is for learning. It will go into my rotation, for sure!
Thanks for the lengthy review, Sondra! Lovely to hear you two enjoyed the soup!
Okay. Uhhhhh, WOW!!! This was phenomenal! My husband literally said some variation of “This soup is amazing!” or “Wow! This is so good!” after every bite. I didn’t do the dried mushrooms, and I didn’t have fresh herbs for the bouquet garni, so for the herbs I just tossed in a bay leaf (and fished it out at the end), some thyme and some fresh parsley.
Thanks for sharing this! This is definitely going into heavy rotation!
Awesome, Meagan. Thanks for your comment and for taking the time to review!