Cream of Parsley (and Mushroom) Soup

As commenter black.of.the.woods suggested last week, we tried the cream of parsley soup from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian to use up our last two bunches of CSA parsley.

The basic recipe is very simple and quick: Saute an onion, add 4 cups of parsley and cook until wilted, add broth to cover, and immersion blend until smooth. Add more broth and cream (up to 2 cups) as desired, then salt and pepper to taste.

Black.of.the.woods suggested using mushroom broth, so we took it one step further and added dried Chinese mushrooms (shiitakes, I think) and used the soaking water for broth.

The soup was delicious, but the mushroom flavor was much stronger than the parsley flavor. So I'm hesitant to tell you that we've discovered the killer app for parsley, but at least our refrigerator is once again parsley-neutral.

Mark's suggested refinement, which we were too hungry to implement, is to serve in ovenproof bowls, grate some Parmesan over, and melt under the broiler, a la French onion soup.

(Jack would like to mention that he made rockin' toast, which he really did. Buttered; sprinkled with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning; and fried in a pan, it stole the show.)