Cheesy Mushroom Soup

The season is changing and the days are so warm that all we crave for is something cool and refreshing. But much to Lil Angel's disappointment, I am not indulging her with ice creams and cold juices.I am feeding her with warm stuffs.This is more because her exams are going on and I don;t want her falling sick. She hates missing school and happily obeys me into eating and drinking warm stuffs.

For the 4th and final week of the 26th edition of Blogging Marathon, I have chosen, 'Cooking from a Cookbook'.

This theme may sound easy but Srivalli has chosen to make it tough by giving a catch there.

You should pick an ingredient, cook from 3 different cook books and it must fall under one of the three categories specified by her - Starter or finger food/ party gravy / Dessert or Soup / Juice / Breakfast / Dessert or Basic / Rice / Indian Sweet.

This was the first theme I selected and opted this for week 1.Since I was not able to do week 1, this theme has been pushed back to week 4.

With loads of cookbooks from which I rarely cook, this theme sounded like an excellent opportunity to take out the books from the cardboard boxes that houses them.

Initially I had selected another ingredient but through the three weeks this month, the chosen one was taken up and I kept changing the ingredient and the combo.

Finally, I had to settle on something and it was ' Cheese' and the theme is soup / Juice / Breakfast / Dessert.

I have been a regular subscriber of the Good Housing Magazine and with one of its issues, there was this free booklet from Britannia - 100 Cheese recipes .

This book is a real treasure trove of recipes with different sections- Breakfast,Lunch and Dinner, Snacks, Desserts.There are so many dishes like Indian pizza, Garlic cheese idli,cheesy rajma rolls,Cheesy masala Aloo that literally makes my tummy rumble.

This Cheesy mushroom soup is from the Soup section of the Lunch and dinner category.

I had not made up my mind until last evening and when I decided that the chosen one was Cheese, I saw this recipe that was so simple yet very filling.

The dish need a ready to prepare soup mix and cheese with some seasonings. So it sounded perfect for me.I don't usually go for ready made soup mixes but this one was really good and owing to the lack of time,it was the best thing I could prepare.

The original recipe uses 400 grams of grated cheese for 1 packet of soup mix. I felt it was too much so used 2 small cheese cubes. The soup did taste cheesy but it was not very over powering.

I used :

Maggi Cream of Mushroom Soup mix - 1 packet

Cheese cubes- 2 grated
Freshly cracked pepper to taste
Oregano- 1/2 teaspoon

Prepare the soup according to the direction on the pack.[For one pack add 600ml water]. Bring to a boil.
Simmer and add 3/4th of the grated cheese, oregano.Stir well.
After 2 minutes remove from heat.
Ladle into soup bowl and serve garnished with the remaining cheese, pepper powder.

I also used coriander leaves to garnish and Lil Angel's favourite cheese based snack [Hippo Rounds]