Ingredients:

300 g white or brown cup mushrooms, roughly sliced

 20 g butter

 ½ onion, diced

 3 cloves garlic, crushed

 ½ tbsp thyme or dill

 ¼ cup cup plain flour

 500 ml vegetable stock

 500 ml milk

 ½ cup cream

 salt and pepper

1 Place butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring for 3-4 minutes or until soft and translucent.

2 Add mushrooms to the saucepan with thyme (if using) and cook, stirring for 4-5 minutes.

3 Add flour to the saucepan. Stir to combine. The flour will absorb some of the liquid in the pan. Continue to stir over medium heat for 1-2 minutes before adding stock. Once the stock has been added, stir thoroughly to ensure the flour does not stick to the bottom of the saucepan.

4 Add milk, dill (if using) and salt and pepper to taste. Bring the soup to a gentle simmer then reduce heat to low and allow to simmer, uncovered for 20-30 minutes, depending on the consistency you prefer. If you prefer a thicker consistency you may need to extend the cooking time by 10 minutes.

5 Place the herbs, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, lemon zest and seasoning in a small food processor or mortar and pestle. Blitz or pound until the herbs are roughly chopped.

6 Heat a griddle pan over high heat. Drizzle bread slices with olive oil then place the bread directly on the pan to toast, flipping once during cooking to ensure both sides of the bread are toasted. Top the toasted bread with the herb mixture.

7 Once the soup has reached the desired consistency, add the cream and continue to simmer for a further 5 minutes.

8 Use a stick blender to puree the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper.