Guinness, Shrooms & the Mashed Potato Bottomer™

This week’s soup adventure began, as many great culinary stories do, with a trip to the grocery store and a vague sense that I had definitely forgotten something important. I set out to make a vegetarian take on a classic Guinness stew, swapping the traditional beef for mushrooms and lentils to bring the same hearty, earthy depth without the meat. The key here was a trick taught to me by Kevin: Porcini Mushrooms. These little suckers are known as “the king of mushrooms” for bringing a flavor that is earthy, nutty, well rounded, and packed with an umami that closely resembles beef.

The shopping trip itself was… mostly successful. I gathered the mushrooms, lentils, potatoes, carrots, and the all-important Guinness. However, somewhere between the produce aisle and checkout, I completely forgot the cabbage that was supposed to round out the stew. By the time I realized, I was already home and committed. So this week’s lesson is that cabbage is apparently optional, but both myself and Kevin duly noted that it would’ve really levelled up this soup.

Speaking of Guinness, I ran into a minor logistical surprise: the store only had it in 4-packs. Since the recipe required significantly less than four full cans (tragic, I know), and I am not a beer drinking myself, my friend David will be the lucky recipient of some “leftover cooking supplies” at this week’s D&D session. Truly the spirit of generosity, I know. Altogether, this soup was a multi-day affair. I decided to prepare the veggies by chopping them ahead of time on Sunday night, and then Monday I prepared the porcini stock, made homemade mashed potatoes to act as a Bottomer™, and THEN had to make the soup. Overall, this soup simmered for nearly 8 hours between home-cooking time, and re-heating/simmering at the office pre-soup club: an absolute treat for the soup’rs.

Now for the most important part, what it all actually meant to Soup Club! Everyone was lined up, positively giddy for today's soup, and even more so when they learned the ever-popular Bottomer™ was here to stay. We all sat down, with Marketing Mike emerging as well. What followed was pure, blissful silence, spoons scraping porcelain, and a brief sigh before ratings began. Kevin started strong with a 9.8, his only grievance being the same as mine…. No cabbage. Jeff matched that score and added that the taste was nearly identical to beef, a feat I am quite proud to accomplish as someone who admittedly, doesn’t know what that’s supposed to be like. Tam and Andy followed just behind with 9.3 and 9.1 respectively, noting that it needed some more salt (which I left out due to Kevin needing a lower sodium content, so I think really we could round these up to a 9.5 atleast…), and at the bottom of the barrel were Adam and Mike with an 8.5 and 8 respectively. The comments I received were “Its hearty”, “It’s a safe choice, but its good”, and a crisp thumbs up from Adam. As far as our tangential member, Felton, he gave me an 8, noting his usual that it could use some meat but otherwise, was good flavor. Fair enough! This brings the base ratings out to a whopping 9.18!

In the end, the stew came together beautifully: rich, dark, and hearty, with mushrooms soaking up that malty Guinness flavor and lentils bringing the comforting stew texture. Even without the cabbage, it turned out to be exactly the kind of cozy bowl you want when the weather still hasn’t quite decided it’s done with winter.