Creamy Mushroom Sauce

This Creamy Mushroom Sauce uses both dried and fresh mushrooms for a sauce that is bursting with flavor!

I’ve been making this creamy mushroom sauce practically my whole life. My mom made it, my grandmother made it, you get the idea. We make this sauce for Ukrainian Christmas and serve it over pierogies. This recipe is an adaptation of that. It’s full of flavor, and bonus, it’s vegetarian!

What kind of mushrooms should I use?

I use both dried porcini mushrooms and fresh button mushrooms for this sauce. If you’d prefer not to use any dried mushrooms, I suggest substituting beef stock for the water in the recipe that would be used to re-hydrate the dried mushrooms. (Of course, then it’s no longer vegetarian, so keep that in mind.)

How to Make Creamy Mushroom Sauce

First, you’ll soak the dried mushrooms in boiling water to re-hydrate them. You can learn more about using dried mushrooms here.

Sauté your onion and add in the fresh mushrooms, cooking until they are nice and soft, about 5 minutes. Next, add salt and garlic powder. Then, you pour in the liquid from the dried mushrooms (not the mushrooms quite yet). That water is now full of delicious, earthy mushroom flavor. Once it’s mostly evaporated, you’ll chop the re-hydrated porcini mushrooms and add them to the pan.

Pour the heavy whipping cream into the pan and bring it to a simmer. Now you have a creamy mushroom sauce that’s ready to take your meal to the next level.

What to Serve with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

As I mentioned before, my family loves this sauce over pierogies. But there are plenty of ways you can use this delicious sauce. Serve it with rice, egg noodles, or really any kind of pasta. Serve it over steak for a play on Steak Diane, or with chicken or pork chops. Use it as a mushroom gravy over your mashed potatoes.

There’s really no shortage of uses for this versatile sauce, so get creative and get cooking!

Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Contributor: Christine Pittman

This Creamy Mushroom Sauce uses both dried and fresh mushrooms for a sauce that is bursting with flavor!

Listen to our editor, Christine Pittman, explain briefly how this delicious sauce is made, with great tips along the way, by clicking the play button below:

• Author: Christine Pittman
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings 1x
• Category: Side Dish
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: American

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Ingredients

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• 1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms*
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 small onion, minced
• 16 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. garlic powder
• ¾ cup whipping cream, or more if desired**

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Instructions

1. Put the porcini in a small bowl. Top with the boiling water. Stir. Let steep for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain liquid through a cheesecloth (see here for info on straining dried mushrooms), but do not discard the liquid. Set aside. Rinse the mushrooms and roughly chop them.
2. In a large skillet heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and stir and cook until softened, 4-5 minutes.
3. Add the button mushrooms and stir. Increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms have shrunk quite a bit, 5-6 minutes.
4. Add your chopped porcini mushrooms and stir.
5. Add the salt and the garlic powder. Stir.
6. Add the mushroom liquid. Cook stirring continuously until most of the liquid is gone.
7. Stir in the whipping cream. Stir often and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 1 minute.
8. Remove sauce from heat.

Notes

If you don’t want to use dried mushrooms, skip step #1. Then use room temperature beef stock in place of the mushroom water in step #5.

This recipe as written makes a sauce that has a large ratio of mushrooms to sauce. If you would like more sauce, add up to another ¾ cup of whipping cream. Follow the instructions as written except you’ll be adding the extra cream.