No Need For Guilt-Cream of Mushroom Soup

It's amazing how quickly you can get involved in other aspects of life and an entire week slips by without even realizing it.  This past week has definitely been one of those! At the beginning of last week, the Little Vegan, who is now seven had to know how ants where important to the earth.  She needed to know if it was okay to step on them.  The next four nights after work were spent reading Wikipedia and watching YouTube videos on ants, which are actually more interesting than I ever would have thought.  She has now determined that she does not want to kill ants unless maybe they are the poisonous kind that could hurt her.  I wasn't surprised about this decision for this is the kid that will stop in her tracks to save an earth worm that has strayed onto the sidewalk.
The only reason I have opted to share this is because I though it was cute and because the ant videos sucked up my blog time.  The time with my kid and seeing the wheels in her head spin were totally worth it!
Today's recipe I can not take credit for.  This is a creation that my mom, Ellen made for us this weekend and it was simply amazing.  Even the Little Vegan loved it, except for the chunks of mushrooms that is.  I am already playing with future creamy soup recipes.  Seriously though, this soup is so rich and creamy that I felt guilty eating it, until I came back to reality and remembered it was vegan.
My mom had a Lions Mane mushroom (I included a picture in case you have never seen one because it was so cool looking) on hand so she used it with regular white mushrooms.  She said she has made it will all kinds of mushrooms and it will be completely different, but still delicious with any mushroom you try it with.  My hubby can't wait to try it with trumpets, his mushroom of choice.  Mom usually adds parsley to the top but we were rushing her because we wanted to eat, plus I don't really care for parsley!

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
a pinch of salt
1 medium onion diced
1 stalk of celery diced
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
a pinch of thyme
2 tbsp flour
4 cups water
1 tbsp Vegetarian Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base
1 tbsp Earth Balance
1 1/2 lbs mushrooms of choice- cut into bite size pieces
pinch of salt
pinch of garlic powder
pinch of ground pepper
1 1/2 cup heavy cashew cream

In a soup pot saute onion, celery and pinch of salt in olive oil over medium low heat until onions are translucent.  Add 1/4 tsp pepper, thyme and flour and cook for five more minutes.  Slowly stir in 4 cups water.  Add bouillon. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes.

While broth is simmering, in a separate pan, saute mushrooms in Earth balance with salt, garlic and pinch of black pepper.  Saute until mushroom are just beginning to cook (you want them to stay firm.)  Remove from heat and set aside.

After broth has simmered for 30 minutes, pour into a blender and blend on high until smooth and creamy. It took a minute or so in the Vita-mix. Pour broth and mushrooms back into soup pot and bring back to a boil.  As soon as it has boiled remove from heat and stir in cashew cream.  Do not let it boil once cashew cream is added because it will crack (remember this if you happen to have left overs that you are trying to reheat.)
                                                                 Lions Mane Mushroom