Creamy vegan mushroom soup recipe

I bought the ingredients for a mushroom soup recipe on the Internet, then couldn't remember which recipe I'd chosen, so had to make my own up. Fortunately it turned out really nice, so here's the recipe. You could easily double this and it would still fit in a large saucepan. The soup could also be eaten without liquidising it, but it won't taste so creamy then.

Mushroom soup

20g dried porcini mushrooms

2 tbsp olive oil (1 if you want to keep things lower fat, but it won't be as creamy)

2 small onions (or 1 large one)

1 frozen block of garlic (equivalent to about 4 garlic cloves - you can optionally use crushed fresh garlic)

250g chestnut mushrooms (button probably works fine as a substitute if you prefer)
2 medium-sized potatoes
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves 

1 vegetable stock cube (e.g. Kallo)

1 tbsp fresh parsley

1. Put the dried porcini mushrooms in a small bowl and pour over enough boiling water to cover.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Finely chop the onions, then add to the pan. Fry over a medium heat until soft. While frying the onions, clean the mushrooms either with a piece of kitchen roll or just by rinsing. We're not trying to minimise water here.
3. Add the garlic and fresh mushrooms to the pan
4. Peel the potatoes and chop into a small dice. Add to the pan. Stir.
5. If you're not planning to liquidise, add half of the soaked porcini to the pan, then chop the other half and add that too. If you are planning to liquidise, just add all the porcini mushrooms as they are.
6. Strain the soaking liquid from the porcini through a sieve into the pan (you are straining it to remove any grit).
7. Remove the thyme leaves from the stalk and add the leaves to the pan. Cook for about 20 minutes.
8. Crumble a vegetable stock cube into the pan and add about 500 ml of boiling water (add at least enough to cover everything). Cook for another 10 minutes (make sure the potato is cooked).
9. If not planning to liquidise, chop the parsley and add it. If planning to liquidise you can add the parsley without chopping.
10. If you are not liquidising, your soup is now ready. Feel free to add more boiling water and salt and pepper to taste. If you are liquidising, wait for the soup to cool to a point where it won't damage your liquidiser and liquidise. You may well need or want to add more water at this stage to be able to liquidise it at all and to get a nice consistency. Add any salt and pepper to taste (I didn't add any). Your soup is now done.

Enjoy with bread or however you like to eat your soup.