Hungarian Mushroom Soup (Unlocked)

and being overwhelmed

Originally published for paying subscribers January 16, 2022. Unlocked now! No addition this week because, ironically, I have, yet again, taken on too much. I have a gig with my band this coming weekend, so no extras on this one. But Food & Fodder continues as normal!

I’ve always taken on too much. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve enthusiastically said yes to many things over the course of a week or so only to get to the end of that week and realize that I’ve filled up a day’s schedule twice over.

But I have a system for handling this. First, I cry. Then I beat myself up for how often I let people down. Then I text or call people to cancel things, no longer crying but wracked with guilt. Then I struggle through the engagements I didn’t cancel.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

I think this is a common struggle. People everywhere are taking on too much. Too much responsibility, too many social engagements, too much outside stimulus.

For example, my husband and I are living with my parents at the moment. It’s a very symbiotic relationship. They needed two people to work at one of their businesses, we lost our other jobs during the pandemic. They need help shoveling snow and taking care of the house, the cooking, and the animals during the winter, we needed to save up a lot of money fast.

As an added bonus, we all like each other, and it’s been fun to have the built-in social time. It’s been working well.

The only time it doesn’t work well is when I’m in charge of an entire week of meal-planning by myself.

A chance to serve a whole week of gorgeous and extremely healthy meals? Cue the overachiever. See, when “Overachiever Juli” rears her ambitious and idealistic head, real-life Juli gets herself in trouble.

Yes, of course, a Hungarian Mushroom soup that I know my mom loves and also would get my family the suggested bazillion pounds of mushrooms a day that I read in some article can help prevent several forms of cancer would be a lovely thing to serve on a Wednesday night after a full day of work.

And Overachiever Juli says, “Yes! Perfect! Let’s do it!”

But she’s not the one who spends a whole day at work, has to run to the grocery store after work, spends fifteen minutes longer there than she planned cause she lives in a teeny-tiny town and inevitably runs into someone she knows and has to chat, rushes home after its already dark, and only then remembers that the recipe requires rinsing, drying, de-stemming, and thinly slicing the mushrooms.

Real-life Juli has to do all that on a Wednesday night.

And I think it begs the question, why? Why is there a part of my, and so many other peoples’, brains that says “Hey! That’s a great idea!” when we come up with something that is obviously going to make us miserable a short time later.

Why can’t I wrap my head around not only what is possible (I’m remembering a day in college when I scheduled for myself classes from 8-11, a study group session for a midterm from 11-12, a voice lesson from 12:30-1, and helping build theatre sets for an internship I was doing from 12:30-3. All after staying up ‘til four in the morning the night before to make an antique clock out of cardboard for the same set. It wasn’t until I was driving to the theater, bleary-eyed but feeling very good about the amount of things I was able to juggle at once, that a text from my voice instructor asking where I was made me both start crying and flip a very dangerous U-turn at the same time. I guess I was still multi-tasking, so…score? I guess?) Why can’t I wrap my head around not only what is possible, but also what is healthy? And I mean mentally healthy. Cause that Hungarian Mushroom Soup is packed with healthy stuff.

For me, it’s always been my need to please. I want to make sure that everyone is happy all the time. My family gets frustrated with me because I ask if they’re ok all. the. time. It annoys me too, I just can’t stop myself.

But I’m trying. Because I think I ask everyone else if they’re ok at least partly because I want to be ok. And if I’m going to help anyone else be ok, I better be ok first (Please make sure to secure your own oxygen mask before helping anyone else).

Did it cause a crisis and make me very, very tired? Yes. Did my mom end up making grilled cheese and a delicious pear and grape salad because the soup wasn’t ready in time? Yes.

But good gracious, this soup was delicious. When I was done with it around nine o’clock and everyone tasted it, I told them to please tell me, no matter how it tasted, “This is the best soup I’ve ever had! Please never make it again.”

But I will make it again. It’s too good not to make it again. But I’ll make it on a Saturday. I’ll start it around three in the afternoon. I’ll buy all the ingredients the day before, cook it with a glass of wine in my hand, and I might even buy pre-sliced mushrooms. And that way, this meal can be healthy for both my body and my mind.

I hope you do the same.

This recipe makes a lot of soup, so you’ll need a very large pot.

Hungarian Mushroom Soup

You will need:

4 medium sweet onions

3 1/2 pounds baby bella mushrooms

4 carrots

8 cloves garlic

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

8 teaspoons Hungarian Sweet Paprika (this should be the regular paprika you have in your pantry, just make sure you don’t use a different variety like hot or smoked)

8 teaspoons dried dill

4 teaspoons dried thyme

8 cups vegetable broth

4 cups water

4 cups milk

1/2 cup flour

Salt

Pepper

What to do:

Finely chop the onions and set them aside. Place the mushrooms in a large colander (you might need to do several batches). Rinse them well. Wipe each mushroom gently dry. Remove the mushroom stems, then slice the caps into 1/4-inch slices. Peel the carrots and cut them into 1/4-inch pieces.

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook until onions are soft and have started to brown, about 10 minutes. Add mushrooms and carrots, stirring often, and cook until mushrooms brown, about 10-15 minutes. Add garlic, paprika, dill, and thyme. Cook about 2 more minutes.

Add vegetable broth and water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Make a roux with the flour and 1/2 cup of the milk. Add the rest of the milk to the roux and whisk until smooth. Add this to the soup and stir it well. Bring the soup to a boil again and then reduce heat. Let simmer for another 10 minutes, or until the soup starts to thicken. It should be thick enough to lightly coat your spoon.

Add pepper and remove from heat.

That’s all for this week. Paying subscribers can tune in next week for a delicious recipe that I’ve nick-named Babka-ish and an essay on grief.

Thanks, as always, for reading,

Juliana

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