A Twist on Bouillabaisse with Champignons de Saison
Provencal Recipes · Soup · TasteThis fall recipe courtesy of Jean Martin (Maussane) and Yvan Gilardi (Toquadom) is perfect when the Provencal markets are filled with a variety of mushrooms. The dish is not exactly a soup but is certainly inspired by the local favourite – bouillabaisse.
You can read Gilardi’s backstory here his creativity shines through in this dish that takes the garlic rouille typically served with bouillabaisse and combines it in a vegetable broth to produce a foamy broth for the delicious mushroom combination.

Bouillabaisse with Seasonal Mushrooms
If ever there was a great recipe to exploit and highlight the season's best offerings of mushrooms, there is none better than this one. A light and cool vegetable bouillabaisse teeming with the bountiful delights of fresh local mushrooms garnished with a creamy rouille.
Ingredients
Bouillabaisse
- 2 kg mushrooms mixed - 3 or 4 varieties
- 1 carrot
- 1 bulb fennel
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 onion
- 1 garlic clove
Rouille Sauce
- 5 egg yolks
- 2 tbsp mustard
- pinch saffron powdered variety
- Salt
- pepper
- 300 ml sunflower oil
- 300 ml olive oil
- to taste piment d’Espelette use a mild paprika if you cannot find it
- 1 jar garlic cream use the Jean Martin version (in France)
Instructions
Preparing the Bouillabaisse broth
- Chop the carrot, onion, fennel, celery and garlic
- In a saucepan over medium heat, gently sauté the vegetables in olive oil without browning them.
- Salt and pepper lightly to taste
- Add water to cover
- Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes
- Remove from heat, cover and let stand for at least 20 minutes.
- Clean and chop the mushrooms
- Then cook (saute) them according to their variety
- Set mushrooms aside
- Strain the vegetable stock
- Re-season with salt and pepper to taste
- Gently strain foam off mushrooms and add to vegetable broth
La Rouille Sauce
- In a blender add all the rouille ingredients together except the sunflower and olive oils.
- Gently pulse until well combined
- Slowly drizzle in the sunflower oil and olive oil while continuously blending until it emulsifies.
Final Presentation
- Gently reheat the mushrooms
- While the mushrooms are warming combine the vegetable bouillon and the rouille sauce and using a handheld electric whisk create a "vegetable foam"
- Spoon the mushrooms in to shallow bowls and cover in foam.
- Serve immediately with fresh baguette.
Notes
The recipe is easy to make and much can be done in advance. The final steps to create the foam and plate the dishes although not tricky should be done quickly.Jean Martin Garlic Cream (Creme d'ail) is available online.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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