Mushroom Soup

Since I've been sick, I've desperately wanted soup. I really needed something hot and warm to make me feel better. I was hoping that if I went to the trouble to make home made soup the whole family would eat it. My husband loved it and ate it two days in a row. The kids said " We don't like mushrooms". Too bad for them they don't know what they're missing. Well more for me :)

Mushroom Soup:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons dairy free margarine
1 cup peeled and sliced carrots
1-2 large shallots chopped
1/2 cup sliced celery
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
2 pounds sliced fresh crimini and white button mushrooms
6 cups homemade or store bought gluten free chicken stock
1 table spoon of fresh basil chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped fine
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
1. Melt the margarine in a stock pot over medium heat. Add carrots, shallots, garlic, and celery. Cook and stir until tender, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in thyme, basil and mushrooms, and continue cooking until mushrooms are soft, about 6 minutes.
3. Pour chicken stock into the pot, and season with salt and pepper. Cover, and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.

Cut Out Cookies

Cut Out Cookies:



Ingredients:
1. 1 cup tapioca flour
2. 1 cup sweet white sorghum flour
3. 1/2 cup white rice flour
4. 2 tsp. xanthan gum
5. 1 1/2 cup of sugar
6. 3 oz. extra firm tofu
7. 1 stick of dairy free margarine
8. 1 1/2 tsp. gluten free vanilla
9. 1 eggs worth of Ener-G egg replacer, prepared
Directions:
1. Mix flours and xanthan gum together in a bowl and set aside
2. Cream together margarine, tofu and sugar
3. Add egg replacer and vanilla and mix thoroughly
4. Add dry flours to sugar mixture and mix on low speed until thoroughly mixed
5. Dough is VERY sticky. Flour hands and all surfaces with arrowroot starch. Either roll dough between 2 sheets of wax paper sprinkled with arrowroot starch or use hands dusted with arrowroot starch to press dough into flat circle. Cut with cookie cutter. Place cut dough on pan lined with parchment paper.
6. Bake in oven on 400 degrees until cookies are lightly browned. Ice and decorate when cooled.
7. Decorate as you like.
Store in airtight container or freeze.
The cookies were a little bland, but the kids loved them. They really held their shaped beautifully. They weren't gourmet, but they did what I needed them to do and they held their shape better than anything I've done so far. My cookie cutter was quite large and I got about 14 cookies out of this batch.