I came across these little field mushrooms by off-chance in the local park, after a couple of days of heavy rainfall. These are Scotch Bonnets or fairy ring mushrooms (and I did find these forming a large ring in the grass) They make a nice soup with vegetables, paprika sour cream parsley. You can add your own variation of vegetables and even beans, the spices thyme or a pinch of oregano would take well to this too. If picking mushrooms of course always do a thorough check of identification.

Ingredients (6 portions)

• 2 tbsp sunflower or olive oil
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 200 g mushrooms  – Scotch Bonnet (about 3 cups with stalks removed)
• 2 carrots
• handful / 1 cup of frozen peas
• 1 tsp of paprika powder
• salt/pepper to taste
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 3 tbsp of sour cream (or more if you prefer)
• 1 tbsp of all-purpose flour
• handful of small pasta shapes for soup
• fresh parsley
• a little lemon juice or vinegar at serving
• 1500 ml / 6 cups water or stock

How to make

1. Prepare the mushrooms. The stalks of scotch bonnets are a bit tough and woody so they are not used here. Take off each mushroom heads, they can be easily snapped off just by hand. Once that’s done rinse the mushroom heads in a big bowl of cold water, scoop them out and discard the water. Repeat if necessary, then set aside.
2. Cut the carrots into fine disks and set aside. Finely chop the onion and garlic
3. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan add the onion and garlic and cook on a low heat until translucent.
4. Pull off the heat and sprinkle in the paprika powder, stir around, the oil will make the paprika release its colour.
5. Pour half of the water to the paprika onion mixture add the carrots and the bay leaf, salt, pepper cook for a couple of minutes until the carrots about half-cooked.
6. Add the mushrooms and the peas, cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes, half way add your pasta shapes, small pasta usually takes about 5 minutes to cook, but read the instructions and adjust your cooking time accordingly.
7. Mix 3 tablespoons of sour cream with the tablespoon of flour, aim for a lump free consistency. Ladle in some of the hot liquid from the soup, combine with the sour cream and flour then pour the mixture into the boiling soup, stir until thickens. And that should be it, ready to serve.
8. Sprinkle chopped fresh parsley, a splash of lemon juice or a tablespoon of vinegar works well with this too.