This hearty, creamy mushroom soup with Italian sausage has the added sophistication of white wine and plenty of herbs and is guaranteed to fill you up!
We’ve been having a lot of uncharacteristically cold days in Charleston this winter. And to me, cold days call for cozy meals. A good stew or a hearty soup warms me right up, preferably served with a big chunk of homemade crusty Dutch oven bread for sopping up the broth or gravy.
I already made this beef stew with red wine earlier in the week (and it was STILL cold outside!), so I wanted to make something else with a different flavor palette that was just as cozy and filling.
My husband and I recently visited one of our favorite brick-oven pizza joints and had a super-delicious mushroom, sage, and sausage pizza, so I decided to make a soup with all the same flavors.
If you’re a huge fan of mushrooms like I am, you’ll love this creamy mushroom soup on your next cold day. It’s extra-hearty due to the addition of Italian sausage, but the mushrooms are meaty enough on their own to leave out the sausage if you’d like.
Whenever I make recipes with mushrooms, I end up wishing there were more of them because they shrink down so much when you cook them. So I planned ahead this time and used 24 oz. of mushrooms! It was perfect.
And because I used three 8-oz. packages, I mixed it up a bit and used two packs of baby bellas and one package of shitake mushrooms. The more variety the better, in my opinion.
I’d love to make this creamy mushroom soup again with one of those packages of dehydrated mixed wild mushrooms, or even some local ones from the farmer’s market when that’s back in season. Go nuts and pick your favorites!
Cleaning and browning your mushrooms
To make things easier, I went with pre-sliced mushrooms. Usually I find the packages are pretty clean already, but if you do find a little dirt in yours, you can give them a quick rinse (not a prolonged soak) before cooking them. It’s okay, I promise. Alton Brown says so.
You want them to brown, not steam, so make sure you pat them dry with paper towels or a cotton kitchen towel after rinsing them.
After that, the real key to making sure your mushrooms brown in the pan is not to overcrowd them. That’s why I cook the mushrooms for this creamy mushroom soup in three 8-oz. batches rather than all at once.
Packed with extra flavor
I’ve added thyme, sage, and a whole cup of white wine to this creamy mushroom soup to take this recipe from the familiar to the sophisticated and decadent. The herbs add a lovely earthiness to the soup – I used dried but use fresh if you have it.
For the wine, I used some Pinot Grigio we had sitting in the fridge, but use any white wine you’d like.
I usually use (gasp!) the cheap white cooking wine you find next to the vinegars in the grocery store, but any wine you’d actually pour yourself a glass of will taste much better. You hear “only cook with wine you’d drink” all the time, but every time I actually cook with wine I’d drink, it surprises me how much of a difference it makes.
What to serve with your creamy mushroom soup with Italian sausage
Combined with a simple green salad and some of this crusty no-knead Dutch oven bread, this would be the perfect cozy meal for a cold night!
Have you made this recipe? Leave me a rating below and let me know what you thought!
Creamy Mushroom Soup with Italian Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 lb mild italian sausage
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1/2 tsp dried sage
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 24 oz. mushrooms I used 16 oz. baby bellas and 8 oz. shitake
- 4 tbsp flour
- 1 cup white wine
- 32 oz. chicken broth
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot, heat to medium and add sausage. Break apart the sausage into small pieces with a wooden spatula. Once it begins to brown, add the onion.
- Cook for an additional 5 minutes or until onions are translucent and sausage is browned. Add sage, thyme, and garlic and cook for an additional minute. Set aside sausage mixture.
- In the now-empty Dutch oven, melt 1 tbsp butter and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Brown mushrooms in three 8 oz batches, so as not to crowd the pan. Cook each batch for about 6 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes or so so they have time to get some brown coloring. Set each batch aside as they brown. Add 1 tbsp butter before adding each of the second and third batches.
- Re-add mushrooms and sausage mixture and remaining 1 tbsp butter.
- Sprinkle flour over ingredients, and stir until everything is evenly coated. Cook for about a minute, stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn.
- Add white wine and simmer until most of the liquid is evaporated.
- Add chicken broth and whipping cream. Cook until warm and thickened.
We make homemade mushroom soup all of the time…. however Ive never thought to add sausage to it! This is a brilliant idea! :). Pinned it!
Thanks! It would be great without the sausage as well, but it definitely makes it more filling as a meal with the meat added. And I think the flavors are great together!
This soup looks so hearty and tasty, I love the additon of white wine, it always brings out so many great flavors to a dish, great recipe 🙂
I agree, the wine really makes this soup! Let me know if you try it!
I LOVE the sound of this soup, so comforting and delicious. Saving this to try asap!
Hope you like it! It really is a soul-warming soup!
I love the sound of this. Mmmmmmm
Mmmmm indeed! And I know you like wine in your food!
Super delicious! I tweaked the sausage a bit…used spicy Italian sausage that had been grilled first. Ground them in my food processor, then followed the recipe.
Sounds delicious! Glad you enjoyed it!
Very good!! Since it doesn’t make a whole pot, I doubled the spice, flour, and liquids. I knew it wouldn’t thicken as much or as quick, so I boiled some potatoes in the broth beforehand to add. Definitely even less healthy, but goes great!
Doubling this soup sounds like an excellent idea to me! I’ve got to make it again soon!
Super easy to make and turned out great. All I had on hand was a dry pinot noir rosé but it really did the trick. That squeeze of lemon juice really wakes the whole thing up, so in my notes I’ve crossed out the word ‘optional’. Also, thank you for giving me the courage to spend more time cooking down the mushrooms to brown them well. Fully worth it, and again, I’ve learned something new.
I love a good browned mushroom! I’m glad you found it worth the extra time too!
This was superb (and for me, it made an entire pot). My only tweaks were: 2) 3/4 c. white wine & 1/4 c. Sherry; 2) grilled the sausage and then cut into bite-size pieces. My husband is devouring it as we speak, and murmuring nom-noms. He’s on his second bowl — no, make that his third. I’m hearing more murmurs.
Your suggestion to use fresh thyme & sage (when possible) was definitely spot on. They made a huge difference in taste and appearance (note to fellow-newbies: preserve fresh sage in a glass of water on your windowsill; it will thrive for weeks on end; mine is still growing from a batch I bought before Thanksgiving).
5 stars ++ ! Thank you for posting the recipe for this delicious gourmet soup.
Thanks for the tip on preserving fresh sage! So glad you loved the soup – it’s so indulgent!
I made this tonight and it’s so easy and it was phenomenal!! So delicious. Can’t wait to make it for friends bcuz they will think I’m an amazing cook ( and I’m not) thank you for this recipe.
So glad you liked it! And who says you’re not an amazing cook? If you cook and the result is phenomenal, I’d say you are an amazing cook!
Made this with chorizo – delicious!!
Yum! Sounds delicious!
I don’t have any wine can I use more chicken broth
Sure can! Although in this recipe it’s mostly added for flavor, rather than quantity of liquid, so you could also just leave it out.
Super tasty. Followed the recipe exactly, only I needed something more to thicken it up a bit more. Added some corn starch to it at the end. Thanks for the recipe. Hubby devoured 3 bowls. I am looking forward to leftovers tomorrow. Yummy.
So glad you liked it!
This soup is amazing! I doubled the recipe, added a package of Lipton onion soup mix and let it simmer 15 minutes. Turn it off, put a lid on and let it rest for 15-20 minutes to marry the flavors. It is OMG AMAZING!
That sounds like a great addition to the soup! So glad you loved it!
So, I decided to omit the sausage first go-around, and add more mushrooms. I used shitake, crimini and white (about 20 oz if mushrooms in total)! And also, use coconut cream instead of whipping cream. Turned out delicious! Will definitely try with the sausage next!
The more mushrooms the better! Glad you liked this soup – it’s excellent with or without the sausage!
Can I use whole milk instead of whipping cream?
Half-and-half would be a better substitute but you could use whole milk too. It won’t be quite as rich. You may have to add some cornstarch if you want the same thickness (dissolve some into a little cold liquid like milk or water before adding the cornstarch slurry to the soup).
Delicious. I used spicey sausage that was on hand. Excellent recipe. Good for you to come up with this! Added it to my favorites.
Thanks so much for your comment and I’m so glad you enjoyed this!
I am interested in the nutritional information such as fat, carbs, fiber, etc.
Hi Marilyn, I’ve updated the recipe card with the nutritional information! The nutritional values are generated by WP Recipe Maker’s extensive food database, but I can’t personally guarantee their accuracy, especially since the specific ingredients used by each user may vary. Hope this helps!
We love mushrooms and I’m dying to try this soup! However, my doctor has me on a low saturated fat diet. I will sub turkey sausage but what do you suggest for the cream? Coconut cream is also high in saturated fat. I do use alot of almond milk and oat milk but wondered if you have a specific suggestion to simulate the cream. Thanks!
You should be able to sub one of your almond or nut milks (whichever you think will better complement the flavor) and it will still have a somewhat creamy consistency due to the flour you add in step 5. Maybe add an extra tbsp of flour in that step to add more thickening power to compensate for no cream! Hope this helps!
I made this tonight for my husband. He loves mushrooms, and he loved this soup. Unfortunately I have never developed a taste for mushrooms, but I did taste of the liquid portion with a bit of the sausage and onion, and I thought that was great! I will definitely make this for him again.
So glad your husband liked this! That’s very sweet of you to make him a mushroom soup even though you don’t like mushrooms!