Easy Dairy Free Mushroom Soup
Dairy free mushroom soup is a must for any mushroom lover. Easy to make, ready in 30 minutes and cooks in just one pot! This recipe uses simple ingredients but is full of deep savory flavors. It’s sure to become your go-to favorite.
If you your go-to comfort food meal is soup, you should check out my favorite soup recipes, including Greek Lemon Chickpea Soup and Butternut Squash Soup.
Here, you’ll find simple, gluten free recipes that are easy to make, quick and and packed with the best ingredients. I love sharing easy, from-scratch meals that fit into busy lives. To get to know more about Bites of Wellness and my fresh take on food, head over to the About page!
Why you will love this recipe
- Simple ingredients that let mushrooms be the stary
- Quick and easy
- 30 minute meal
- Better than store bought
- No canned soup
- Thick and creamy without any dairy!
- One pot meal
- Great for entertaining – this recipe is perfect for entertaining because its not only flavorful but also vegan, dairy free, gluten free and Whole30 friendly.
Spotlight on key ingredients
- Sliced mushrooms – I recommend a combination of white mushrooms and baby bella mushrooms (cremini mushrooms). You could also use all white mushrooms or all baby bella mushrooms.
- Shitake mushrooms or larger portobello mushrooms cut down into bite size pieces can also be used..
- Fresh Thyme – fresh thyme is what really gives this recipe its fantastic flavor. You can make this with dried thyme, you will only need 1 teaspoon.
- Vegetable broth – vegetable broth helps the soup taste like it’s been cooking all day on the stove.
- Arrowroot powder – arrowroot powder helps to thicken the soup, helping to create a creamy mushroom soup texture without being too thick. You can also use tapioca starch or cornstarch.
- Dairy free milk – dairy free milk helps create that creamy mushroom soup consistency and flavor without using any dairy. You can use almond milk, cashew milk, oat milk, canned coconut milk (full fat coconut milk), or whatever your favorite nondairy milk is.
How to make dairy free mushroom soup
Chop the onions and slice the mushrooms. Bring a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the onions until slightly softened.
Add the mushrooms to the onions in the pot and cook mushrooms and onions for 5-6 minutes.
Add the fresh thyme, salt, garlic powder, bay leaves and coconut aminos to the mushroom and onion mixture.
Mix the arrowroot powder into the vegetable broth (or vegetable stock) and stir well until completely combined. Pour the arrowroot powder and vegetable broth slurry and the dairy free milk into the mushroom and onion mixture and allow it to come to a simmer for 15 minutes to thicken.
After 15 minutes, serve hot or you can blend up some of the soup with an immersion blender to thicken the soup a little more to create a creamy mushroom soup.
Top tips
- Time saving tip – You can buy pre-sliced mushrooms (white baby mushrooms or cremini mushrooms) in most grocery stores. This can help save you time on the prep of this recipe.
- Double or triple the recipe – As written, this soup only makes 2 large bowls, which disappears quickly. You can double or triple the ingredients to make a larger batch of soup. Just note that it may take longer to sweat out the mushrooms. Also be sure to use a large pot.
- To prepare the mushrooms, use a dry paper towel to brush off any soil/dirt you see.
- Wait to salt the mushrooms until after they have cooked down for some time. Adding salt too early can cause the mushrooms to not fully release all their water, which can give them a spongy texture.
Serving suggestions
This soup is creamy and hearty but not super filling since it’s mostly just mushrooms. Therefore, I recommend serving it as a starter/appetizer or served with salad and/or bread.
- Salad – Soup and salad go together so well (add a hunk of bread and call it a meal). Some great options would be Shaved Brussel Sprouts Salad, or Cruciferous Crunch Salad
- Bread or crackers –Homemade Seed Crackers, pita bread, or crusty bread warmed up in the oven.
- Grains – To make the soup more filling you could add 1 cup of cooked grains (rice, quinoa) to the soup.
Topping Ideas
Give the soup more texture by adding a topping. Some great options include:
- Croutons
- Fried onions
- Parmesan cheese (regular or vegan)
- Microgreens (broccoli, kale, arugula, radish)
- Fresh thyme leaves
Common Questions
What if you don’t have fresh thyme?
- Dried thyme – Dried herbs are much stronger, so you will want to use about 1 teaspoon.
- Herbs de Provence – add about 1-2 teaspoons
- Dried Italian seasoning – add about 1-2 teaspoons.
When using dried herbs, I recommend to rub them through your fingers, this helps release some of the natural oils in the herbs, giving them more flavor.
How to thicken soup without heavy cream
Arrowroot (or tapioca flour or cornstarch) is used to thicken the soup.
It’s important that you fully mix in the arrowroot powder into cold or room temperature liquid before adding it to the heat. This is to ensure the arrowroot doesn’t clump in the soup.
To make the soup even creamier, blend half of the soup with an immersion blender or high-speed blender to help thicken it more. You could also add pureed white beans or mashed potatoes to the soup to help thicken it without cream.
Can this soup be made ahead of time?
The beauty of this easy mushroom soup is that it’s almost better the next day, so if you are having company, this would be a great make ahead meal. Just give the soup a few minutes to come back up to temperature over medium low heat before serving.
Note: This recipe only makes 2 servings, so if you are making it for company, you will want to double the recipe.
If you love this recipe, you should try
Dairy Free Mushroom Soup
Guided Recipe Video
Ingredients
- 1 large white onion - diced
- 1 package white button mushrooms - 10 oz sliced
- 1 package baby portobello mushrooms - 10 oz sliced
- 10 stalks fresh thyme - leaves removed
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tbsp coconut aminos (or tamari or soy sauce)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder - optional
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 tbsp tapioca flour - or arrowroot or cornstarch
- 1 cup dairy free milk - unsweetened
- freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add the diced onions and cook for 5-7 minutes while you slice the mushrooms..
- After 5-7 minutes, move the onions to the sides of the pot and add the mushrooms, allow to cook 5 minutes.
- Stir the onions and mushrooms together. Add fresh thyme leaves and continue to cook, at least 10 minutes.Note: You will notice a substantial amount of water has come out of the mushrooms, and they are reduced in volume by half.
- Add the bay leaf, salt, coconut aminos and garlic powder (optional) to the mushrooms.
- Add the tapioca starch to a bowl with the vegetable broth and stir well to combine. Add the vegetable broth mixture and dairy free milk to the mushroom mixture and stir well.
- Allow to cook for at least 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and add freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Equipment
- 1 Immersion Blender Optional
Recipe Notes
- This soup is amazing the next day as well and can easily be doubled or tripled.
- To make the soup creamier, you can blend half the soup in a high speed blender (be careful, it’s hot).
- To thicken the soup even more, you can add a can of drained white beans or boiled potatoes.
- A mixture of cremini (baby portobello) and white button mushrooms are best. However you can use all cremini or all white button mushrooms if you need to.
- If you don’t have fresh thyme, you can use 1 teaspoon of dried thyme.
- Dairy free milks that this works well with include: unsweetened almond milk, coconut milk, cashew milk or oat milk.
- Substitutes for tapioca starch include arrowroot powder or cornstarch.
- Fridge – Store leftovers in an airtight container up to 4 days in the fridge. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove!
- Freezer – If needed, you can also freeze the leftovers for up to 2 months in a freezer safe container. However, arrowroot powder can get a little gritty after freezing. so I recommend that you don’t freeze it unless absolutely necessary.
Excuse my lack of knowledge but I’ve used fresh thyme. When you say “remove the leaves” from 12 stalks, do you mean “discard” the leaves and use just the stalks or vice versa?
Hi there! No worries. Please use the leaves and discard the stalks. I really hope you enjoy this soup! Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks!
I have a question about the thyme… It seams like SO MUCH thyme that im not sure im doing it right. My box came with 10 stalks would that mean I use all of them. It’s a lot! Or is a stalk a those little bunches on it?
Each stalk often has lots of “shoots”. I was counting each “shoot” as one. However, this recipe is really all about the thyme so you can’t go wrong :) Enjoy!
Will sure try this simple recipe next time with my guests. Good idea to make ahead and serve the next day,.
Just made your wonderful soup! Smells amazing and from my taste tests, tastes amazing as well! Thanks for sharing! I used coconut milk 1/2 full fat, half non-fat and it worked out beautifully! It was almost too easy, took about 25 minutes. Definitely a new staple!
Absolutely delicious!! One of the best soups I have ever had, and very easy to throw together. Made exactly per the recipe, except I used dried thyme as I had it on hand. Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe!!
Is the liquid aminos just for flavor? I can’t have that or soy sauce.
Can you have coconut aminos? those are a great alternative!
I pinned this the other day and made it today and wow! It was delicious. I am telling everyone I know about it. I am neither vegetarian nor vegan but I do like to cook healthy vegetarian and vegan meals for my family.
The only change I made was adding garlic while cooking the mushrooms and onion and I used cornstarch instead of the tapioca flour. I also soy sauce rather than the liquid aminos.
My 1 year old ate it up too! Both as is and soaked into little pieces of bread.
Thanks for the great recipe.
Hi Michelle, you can use a nonstick pan or spray a bit of nonstick spray (I would use coconut oiL). Enjoy it!!
Just wondering, any suggestions for substituting the tapioca flour? I can’t seem to find that ingredient around here. Thanks for this delicious sounding recipe!
Hi Leiza – you could use potato starch, corn starch or white flour (of course avoid this if you are GF). Hope this helps!!
I used garbanzo bean flour, aka chickpea flour. Very good!
Delicious
So glad you liked it – it’s seriously my favorite soup!
Wow! I just made this topped with focaccia croutons & it was to die for. It didn’t taste healthy at all but happens to be totally guilt free. Definitely a new staple in my repertoire. There’s a restaurant near my house that serves the best mushroom brie soup and this tasted just as good. I even had to buy a whole thyme plant because the produce section was out and I had my heart set on this recipe…WORTH it. I can’t praise you enough!
Julia, that just makes my day!! Thank you so much for stopping back and commenting, I’m so glad you love it as much as I do. That thyme plant will get much use now I imagine :) Probably a great investment! Thank you again for stopping back and letting me know you loved it – that really made me smile!
is this recipe gluten free? It certainly looks like it is but I didn’t see it in the description and my daughter has celiac. The recipe looks awesome!
Yes, it is gluten free! I hope you and your daughter can enjoy it! Just be sure to use Bragg Liquid Aminos or Coconut Aminos (regular soy sauce is not gluten free)! Have a wonderful day!
This soup was amazing! I made it with almond milk and I blended half the soup to make it extra creamy. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m making this soup right this very second, and I’m impressed with the richness I’m getting without dairy or coconut milk (a weird minor allergy around here that makes it hard to veganize many things.)
I did add 1.5 tsp of vinegar to give it some brightness.
Thanks for the great recipe!
So glad you liked it!!! The vinegar sounds like a great addition, I’ll have to try that the next time I make it!
Sherry deepens the flavor!!
What a great idea Nancy! Thanks for sharing!
very good, I added a can of beans and put half of the soup in the blender.
You probably get tired of questions like this but if I wanted to make a nut-free version…do you think coconut milk is too strong of a flavor? Maybe a flax milk?
Leanne, I think flax milk or hemp milk would work really well. Unsweetened coconut milk might be ok but I haven’t tried it. Hope you can figure out a milk that works best, let me know if you try it with coconut milk!