Mushroom-Spinach Soup With Cinnamon, Coriander and Cumin

I'm confused, the caption above calls this a "hearty, chunky soup," as the photo confirms.

Then the recipe says to puree the whole thing with an immersion blender.

I guess you can go either way.

This made a great foundation for wonderful soup. I started first with some bits of bacon that I had left over, substituted a whole sweet onion for the shallots, added a clove of chopped garlic, and then all the fresh mushrooms chopped, then the wonderful spices, followed with 5 cups of chicken broth (instead of water) and egg pasta noodles. Just before taking from the stove, added the fresh spinach! It was delicious, and my husband loved it! I especially loved all the amt. of mushrooms .

very delicious. I don't have an immersion blender and left it the way it was -- chunky (and it looked just like the picture). I would argue for not processing it.

All in all a real winner, totally tasty, really interesting texture. Made a few substitutions pantry and spice-wise, yellow onion for shallots, only Portobello mushrooms, dried thyme for fresh, added thinly sliced sweet potato and kale at the end. Used the water as directed because to me the interesting part about the recipe was to discover if ordinary water would deliver a rich stock flavor. It did. Stirred dollops of creme fraiche into each bowl. Wow!

This soup is absolutely fantastic: one of the best NYT recipes I have made, and I make a lot of them. I used veg stock instead of water, chose butter (4 Tbsp are enough), and used a blend of shitake, wood ear, and oyster mushrooms. Don't skimp on the limes: I used two. Umami level midnight.

This recipe was so simple and packed with flavor! I used some dried porcini's then used the soaking liquid as part of the broth. I also added diced tofu, celery leaves and radish on top and made this a complete meal. This one is going in the books!

Darn auto correct ...that is crimini mushrooms not criminal.

Really enjoyed this. Pureeing the soup slightly is important; adds a "meaty" flavor to the broth, while still leaving some pieces of mushroom for texture.

We substituted Swiss chard for spinach and homemade chicken stock for water. Added 3/4 cup of barley and simmered for 50 minutes instead of 20. Used 2 shallots, one small onion, micro-planed garlic and the chard stems, diced small. Doubled the ground coriander, omitted the allspice. Used a heavy hand with the pepper mill. Had neither lime nor yoghurt but grated some Parmesan over. Absolutely delicious.

Made this exactly as written, except I didn't have limes so I used lemons instead. Absolutely delicious and perfect. My roommate went absolutely nuts for it too. A keeper.
To those who cut (complained about) the salt: you do realize kosher salt is different from table salt, right?

Haven't tried it yet but thinking about adding lentils. Any thoughts?

Used a lamb shank. Simmered it for 60 - 90 minutes before adding it (with its broth) to mushrooms, etc. instead of water. Added a half cup of barley with the broth. So a combination of scotch broth and mushroom spinach soup. Delicious!

Thank you for this fabulous recipe and the helpful comments from other makers! I whipped up this soup using what I had, which amounted to fewer mushrooms and 3 cups of broth, but I kept the amount of spices just as the recipe called for (except, no coriander, and half the salt). The resulting flavor was out of this world. I tossed in some leftover brown rice and diced cooked chicken with the spinach and had an hearty, amazing meal in a short time. I'm definitely making this again!

I really dislike chicken stock/ broth. I've made this and it's very good without some meat broth. I am not a vegetarian but I dislike meat in a recipe that is essentially not meat oriented. You can make excellent vegetable stock by roasting the vegetables.

EXCELLENT QUESTION. Chicken stock/broth will make the soup richer and is a better choice than water.