Mushroom & Spinage Soup

2 punnets brown mushrooms or any other kind.
dried porchini - optional
2 onions
1 clove garlic
1 large bunch baby spinage or a large pillow pack (for those of you lucky enough to live in the land of Woolies!)
1 bunch fresh thyme
1 litre beef stock or 1 beef stock cube
butter, salt and lots of black pepper
cream to serve (optional)

Finely chop onions and garlic and saute in butter until soft. Finely chop mushrooms and add to onions. Add thyme (you can tie this in a bunch with string so it is easier to fish out later), porchini and stock and simmer until the mushrooms are cooked and soft. (If you are using a stock cube, add to the mixture and add a kettle of boiling water to the mixture). Once the mushrooms have cooked, about 20 min, turn off the heat and remove the thyme sprigs with a fork. Add the washed baby spinage to the soup. The hot soup will blanch the spinage and it will not taste hard and irony from over cooking. Blend the soup with a hand blender until smooth, adding salt to taste and lots of fresh black pepper. Add a swirl of cream to serve. Good in winter, super quick to make and the porchini just makes the mushroom flavour more intense.