With this soup you can either puree it after it has simmered or serve it as is. If you puree is, add some cooked rice near the end of the cooking process.
Make this vegetarian by using a good vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. For a vegan soup, use the vegetable stock and olive oil instead of butter.
Used different ingredients. ohmygod...what a great soup. The few changes I made were cabbage instead of leeks( I didn't have any) added a tad of garlic, white button and portabello mushrooms, 2 can's veggie stock and a can of beef gravy instead of the chicken stock. The rest was the same. Other's like it pured, but I prefered it chunky. I will Definately make it again and again. - 29 Sep 2008
Excellent meal! Lots of yummy fresh ingredients, simple and fun to make (as a family we did the prep work together). Tasted amazing! - 26 Oct 2012
Used different ingredients. One of the best mushroom soups I've ever tried! Because garlic is good in almost everything I added three cloves of freshly chopped garlic when I sauteed the veggies; and because I was too lazy to make rice I added a handful of dry orzo to cook up as the soup simmered. I used my immersion blender to slighly puree a small amount of the soup which gave an illusion of creaminess; but still left it very chunky. - 29 Sep 2008