I started my book “The Table under an Apple Tree” from a story about time when my sister and I set out to the forest for the mushrooms in my childhood days because this soup is my favorite ever! So if I want to share with you some very special recipes I definitely choose to start from this one.

Of course it’s not typical for Russians to eat mushroom soup with dumplings. Only once I cooked and added those small dumplings with chicken to the soup because I wanted to try something interesting to impress my friends. I realized they fit together but only if you cook a thick soup and have enough time for extra actions.

Mushroom soup can be cooked with water or mushroom broth, but I prefer using light chicken stock. It makes the taste homier, and some dried mushrooms are essential, even if mushrooms are in season and I have plenty of fresh ones.

Ingredients you’ll need

* 350–500 g fresh mushrooms (ceps, brown caps, orange caps, mossiness mushrooms)

* 50 g dried mushrooms (ceps, brown caps, orange caps, mossiness mushrooms)

* 3–4 potatoes

* 1 onion

* 1 carrot

* 100 g pearl barley

* vegetable oil

* salt to taste

Directions

1. Soak the dried mushrooms in boiling water for 30 minutes—later you can add some of this water to your soup. Then chop up soaked mushrooms really small.

2. Slice up fresh mushrooms.

3. Boil pearl barley.

4. Peel the vegetables. Cut the onion in half and slice up thin. Grate the carrot and cube the potatoes.

5. Fry the sliced onion and grated carrot with heated vegetable oil in a large pan. Add fresh mushrooms and cook for 10–15 minutes. It’s best to let the vegetables and mushrooms to stew in their own juices for a while. If you add some of that juice into your soup it’ll make the mushroom taste sharper.

6. Heat up your chicken stock in a pot and boil potatoes until half cooked.

7. Add the mushrooms with carrot and onion, chopped up dried mushrooms and pearl barley into the pot. Salt to taste and cook on a low heat until done.

8. After the heat is turned off, the soup must steep for at least half an hour. But it tastes best of all on the next day.