Nutrient-Dense Potato Soup (with Lion's Mane Mushrooms)
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This potato soup is the BOMB! I love most soups, but this one is one makes the top 3 for sure! This soup is creamy, super flavorful, and PACKED full of nourishing ingredients like lion's mane mushrooms, lentils, bone broth, and, of course, potatoes. It can also be cooked in one pot, so cleanup is super easy!
What makes this soup so nourishing?
Potatoes:
Potatoes are an excellent whole food carbohydrate! They are easy for the body to digest when cooked, unlike many other common carbohydrates like grains. Potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin C, potassium, iron, phosphorus and magnesium. And that's not to mention they are delicious!
Lentils:
Lentils are a good source of plant-protien, which can be difficult for the body to absorb due to the chemical composition of the plant. However, soaking lentils makes them easier to digest, and pairing them with an animal protein (like bone broth and bacon) gives your meal a more complete amino acid profile, making the protein in lentils usable in the body. Lentils are also a great source of potassium, fiber, and folate!
Lion's Mane Mushrooms:
Lion's Mane mushrooms are known as a medicinal mushroom, meaning they have healing and health-promoting properties. You can probably find lions mane in some form at your local healthfood store as the benefits are well-documented and accepted! Lion's Mane mushrooms are rich in vitamins such as thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin and minerals such as manganese, zinc, and potassium! Lion's Mane is an absolute powerhouse of nutrients!
Bone Broth:
Bone broth is a food that I would also consider a powerhouse of nutrients! Bone broth contains calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin K2, iron, zinc, selenium, and manganese (many of these are nutrients that many Americans are often deficient in). Bone broth is packed full of collagen and gelatin which is excellent for promoting good gut health. I like to incorporate as much bone broth as possible into my diet for the full range of amino acids, which is very important when eating head to tail.
To learn more, see my posts here for:
10 Meals to Sneak Bone Broth Into
Nutrient-Dense Potato Soup
Cook Time: 40 minutes Serving Size: 6
Tools Needed:
Cutting board, knife
Large pot
Blender (Here is the one I use) But an immersion blender would work well.
Ingredients:
6 large potatoes
1 large yellow onion
5 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup lentils (See Notes)
1/2 cup dried or fresh Lion's Mane Mushrooms (See Notes)
5 cups bone broth (see my recipe here)
2/3 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 teaspoon cummin
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoon pepper
8 strips of bacon
1/3 cups diced green onions (optional)
Instructions:
1. Cook the bacon in the pot. Once the bacon is cooked, set it aside and drain off the lard.
2. While the bacon cooks, chop the onions and garlic. Add both to the same pot where you cooked the bacon with the butter and cook on medium/low until the onions are transparent.
4. While the onions and garlic are cooking, chop the potatoes. Add them to the pot with bone broth, lentils, and mushrooms.
5. Cook until the lentils and potatoes are tender (about 20 minutes if you soaked the lentils ahead of time).
6. Blend the soup to your liking using an immersion or regular blender.
7. Add seasonings, cream, sour cream, and milk to the soup and mix well.
8. Chop the green onion and bacon to add as toppings.
9. Serve and enjoy!
Notes:
I used dehydrated mushrooms that we purchased from our local farmer's market. These can also be purchased online here in powder form. They can also be foraged during the fall. I have foraged them before, and chose to make a "crab" cake and also blended them into a curry. They are actually one of the easier mushrooms to forage! Other mushrooms can be used in this soup as well. I've used oyster mushrooms instead of lion's mane, but many varieties of mushrooms would be excellent in this soup! And if you're mushroom-averse, you can leave them out altogether!
I recommend soaking lentils at least 2 hours ahead of time, so they cook faster and are easier to digest. However, if you forget, don't fret, they will still cook well.
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This soup is a fall and winter favorite in my house! It's so warm and tasty and relatively easy to make! The bone broth, lentils, and bacon help balance the meal with a good amount of protein. Adding in medicinal and/or foraged mushrooms is an excellent way to boost the nutrient content of this soup AND it's a great way to sneak them in if you have any picky eaters in your house. Blended mushrooms on soup are much more palatable than dishes like lion's mane "crab" cakes.
I hope you enjoy this soup as much as we do! Let me know if you try it and like it and if you use other mushrooms besides lion's mane!
See my other recipes for using foraged food, like Chanterelle Mushroom Risotto Recipe and learn why I focus on locally sourced and nutrient dense food from my post What is an Ancestral Diet!
