Coconut Chicken Soup - Recipe

I don’t really like soups. There I said it. I don’t know what it is but I just can’t get on board with liquid for a meal, it doesn’t feel like I have eaten. What I do like however is broth. Basically, flavoured water with food in it. There is a lovely Thai restaurant in the Leicester Sq area that does a beautiful coconut chicken and mushroom broth and I crave it so much I thought I would try and make my own and do you know what – I think it’s almost as good. 

Ingredients

100g brown rice

1.2l chicken stock or vegetable stock

1 tbsp finely root ginger (or cheat like I did and get it out of a jar)

1 stalk of lemongrass, thinly sliced (same as above)

2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

250g skinless boneless chicken breast, thinly sliced

175g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

200g cherry tomatoes, halved

The juice of 2 limes

2 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla)

200ml carton coconut cream

a handful of chopped spinach

NOTE: I have included rice in the ingredients for this recipe but when I made it originally I didn’t make it with rice. Instead I just kept it as a brothy soup for a light lunch. Later in the week I cooked rice and added to the soup so we could have this for dinner and it was a bit more filling. It is gorgeous whatever your soup preference.

Method to the madness

(If using cook the rice in boiling salted water for about 10 minutes, until tender, then drain and set aside).

Meanwhile, heat the stock in a large pan, add the lemongrass, galangal or ginger, lime and chillies and simmer for 5 minutes. Next add the chicken and mushrooms and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, lime juice, fish sauce and coconut cream and simmer for 5 minutes more. Scatter over the spinach and serve (with a little cooked rice spooned in if desired).

Honestly the best soup in the whole world. Try it and you will see!

xxx

Recipe - Mushroom, Bacon and Blue Cheese Soup

Trying to catch up with all my blog posts now I am back from Glastonbury. I will be posting about it soon but first here is a soup recipe.

I know it isn't exactly soup weather at the moment but I tried a similar one at Glastonbury and it was so good I had to try and recreate it.

Ingredients

25 g butter

250g Chopped Leek and cabbage mixture (I bought a pre-sliced bag from ASDA because I'm lazy)

200g sliced mushrooms

500 ml chicken stock

30g blue cheese

6 slices bacon, cooked

Method to the Madness

Heat some butter in large saucepan over medium heat and then add the leeks, cabbage and mushrooms. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Whilst your veg is cooking cut the bacon into smallish squares and then fry off in another pan. Once cooked add to the vegetable pan.

Make up the chicken stock and add to your mixture, bringing to boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to a food processor and add the blue cheese. DON'T DO WHAT I DID AND ADD TOO MUCH BLUE CHEESE. I've said 30g in the Ingredients but it really is best to add a little at a time otherwise it overpowers everything. My soup tasted like a blue cheese soup.

Might be best not to let any animals up on the work surface......

Blitz it in the processor. I tried to add chunky bits to mine but it didn't work – it ended up lumpy and horrible so instead I let the food processor do its work for 5 minutes so the soup was smooth.

Serve and try not to lick the bowl.