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Chicken Broth Stellette Soup

Chicken Stellette Soup

I’ve been struggling with a winter cold for weeks now and while I’m normally an ‘it will pass’ kind of sick person, I’m about at the end of my tether with this particular cold, so it’s definitely time to dig out the big guns – in this case a chicken broth stellette soup.

The chicken in this recipe is already cooked, left over from Sunday lunch and it’s worth mentioning that the ratios of the spring onions, mushrooms, chicken and pasta can vary. It won’t hugely affect the end result, and it’s better than leaving a random mushroom alone in the punnet in the fridge!
Chicken Broth Stellette Soup

Mushrooms are great for colds and flues apparently, containing cytokines that play an important role in defending the body against viral infections and tumours and help boost the immune system. And I’ve read conflicting advice about the consumption of mushrooms, but it seems that in order to get the most nutrition from them, they must be cooked otherwise they’re undigestable.

According to Chinese medicine, spring onion is good for expelling a winter cold, especially if consumed within the first two days of the cold.

Parsley has high levels of Vitamin C, Vitamin B12, and betacarotene that boosts the immune system of the body and protects it from colds, cough, and other infections.

Chicken is rich in a compound called carnosine, and it’s this that studies suggest helps reduce that stuffy, congested feeling in your nose and throat.

I also like using Stellette or Stelline pasta as they are small and don’t require much chewing and small enough to swallow (great when you have a sore throat) and then they are kind of pretty too!

I might try adding ginger and garlic next time too, not only because of the health benefits but because they might add a little extra flavour kick at a time when you can’t taste much!

 

 

Chicken Stellette Soup
Recipe Type: Soup, Broth
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2 cups
Ingredients
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 spring onions, chopped
  • 1-2 cups white mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 shredded chicken breast
  • 1/2 cup stellette soup pasta
  • 125ml dry white wine
  • 3-5 stalks fresh parsley
  • salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Place the chicken stock and bay leaf in the Thermomix and heat Varoma/Speed 2/ 2 minutes/Reverse Speed
  2. Add the spring onions, the mushrooms and pasta to the pot and cook Varoma/Speed 2/5 minutes/Reverse Speed
  3. Add dry white wine & parsley and cook for a further 2 minutes/Varoma/Speed 2/Reverse
  4. Remove the bay leaf, add salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Regular instructions
  1. Place the chicken broth and bay leaf in a pot and bring to the boil
  2. Add the spring onions, the mushrooms and pasta to the pot and boil for 8 minutes
  3. Add dry white wine & parsley and boil for another 3 minutes
  4. Remove the bay leaf, add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Click here for more soup recipes

Click here for more recipes containing broth

 

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Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup

Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup

This soup came about because I really don’t like a chunky soup. Contrary to popular belief this isn’t because of the texture, but rather is because I get bored half way through a bowl of same tasting bite after bite. And by the time you’ve boiled your vegetables long enough to extract the flavour into the broth, every bite tastes the same.

I prefer a deconstructed soup. It’s still hearty, filling, healthy, but it looks much prettier since everything retains it’s colour and shape, and every bite is a mini-adventure.
 Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup

Take this soup for example. Butternut soup with lardons, sage and Grana Padano cheese.

The first bite has a little bit of lardon and a small sliver of sage. It’s tasty. The next bite,  has a hint of garlic, and a bit of onion along with the butternut, and tastes homey. The following spoon picks up a large piece of melted cheese, and the rich full flavour of Grana Padano accompanies the butternut down my throat. The next spoon hits a pocket of sage butter, and provides a whole other taste to any of the previous bites – and next it’s just a plain spoon of butternut, that almost cleanses your palet. And so it goes, on and on.

Grana Padano Butternut Squash Soup

Well, it works for me, and I hope you like it too!

For this soup I like to roast the butternut squash. While you can just go ahead and make it from an uncooked butternut squash, which gives it a fresh flavour, I find a roasted butternut squash has so much more depth to it. It’s definitely worth the extra 40 or so minutes.

Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup
Recipe Type: Soup
Cuisine: Italian
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 3 -4
It may seem a little fiddly, but for this soup you need to roast the butternut squash. Once it’s cooked, boil the soup for 15 minutes, while at the same time cooking the lardons and sage leaves for 10 minutes each. Slice up the cheese and everything should be ready at the same time.
Ingredients
  • 1 Butternut Squash
  • 4 Garlic cloves
  • 1 Onion
  • 250ml chicken stock
  • 30g butter
  • 10 sage leaves
  • 75g pasta
  • 140g bacon lardons
  • 50g Grana Padano shards
  • pepper to taste
  • olive oil to drizzle
Instructions
  1. Cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds.
  2. Peel four garlic cloves and put them inside the hollowed out butternut squash.
  3. Drizzle a good quality olive oil over the butternut squash, place on an oven tray and bake at 200C for about 40 mins till it’s soft all the way through. Set aside to cool slighly, then chop into rough chunks. If it’s a young butternut squash you can keep the skin, but if it’s older, discard.
In the Thermomix
  1. Add the onion and baked garlic cloves to the Thermomix and chop 3 seconds/speed 4.
  2. Cook for 3 minutes/100C/Speed 1
  3. Add the chicken stock and butternut squash, and cook 15 mins/speed 4
  4. Meanwhile in a pan, fry the bacon lardons until they are crispy, about 10 minutes.
  5. In another, smaller pan, melt 30g butter, and add the sage leaves. Gently fry for about 10 minutes on low heat until the butter is browned and the leaves are crispy.
  6. Thinly slice ‘shards’ of the Grana Padano cheese.
  7. To serve, dish up the soup, making sure to get some pasta in each bowl and sprinkle cheese over. On the side, serve lardons, additional cheese chards and the sage leaves.
  8. Drizzle the sage butter over the butternut squash soup, and serve.
Regular Instructions
  1. Chop and slice the onions and garlic, and saute for about 10 mins in suitable suit pot, till translucent.
  2. Add the chicken stock and butternut squash, and cook for about 15 minutes on medium heat.
  3. Meanwhile in a pan, fry the bacon lardons until they are crispy, about 10 minutes.
  4. In another, smaller pan, melt 30g butter, and add the sage leaves. Gently fry for about 10 minutes on low heat until the butter is browned and the leaves are crispy.
  5. Thinly slice ‘shards’ of the Grana Padano cheese.
  6. To serve, dish up the soup, making sure to get some pasta in each bowl and sprinkle cheese over. On the side, serve lardons, additional cheese chards and the sage leaves.
  7. Drizzle the sage butter over the butternut squash soup, and serve.

 

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Onion Soup Thermomix Recipe

This onion soup my mother used as a base for her Vranameer Chicken for many years. She, of course, didn’t use a Thermomix, so I’ve just adapted it for a simple, tasty, filling soup, perfect to eat as a soup, or as the basis for a casserole.

Onion Soup

French Onion Soup Thermomix Recipe
Recipe Type: Soup
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
My mother used this as a base for casserole dishes for many years. I’ve just adapted her recipe for the Thermomix. My husband and I have an ongoing argument about this soup. I think sweating the onion in the Thermomix is fine, but he thinks the first steps should be done on a frying pan. It’s a personal flavour preference.
Ingredients
  • 25g butter
  • 500g onion (about 3)
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 125ml white wine
  • 500g vegetable, chicken or beef stock & water mixed depending on the stock you use.
  • salt & pepper to season
Instructions
  1. Place the butter in the Thermomix bowl and add 500g onions, halved.
  2. Mix at speed 5 for 5 seconds till they’re chopped, and put on speed 2/100C to sweat the onions for 4 minutes. (If you’re doing this step on the stove, fry until the onions are translucent but watch that they don’t burn. Add the sugar and leave to caramalise, about 5 minutes, but keep an eye on it.)
  3. Add the sugar, and cook for 10 minutes, speed 2, 100C
  4. Add the garlic, wine and stock and cook for 15 minutes, speed 2, Varoma.
  5. Taste and season, and serve with fresh bread (although again here, my husband prefers it kept in the fridge for 24 hours, and then heated and served. I like it as is.)
Calories: 136,3 Fat: 5.4g Saturated fat: 3.3g Unsaturated fat: 1.4g Carbohydrates: 14.9 Sugar: 7.6h Sodium: 288.9mg Fiber: 1.5g Cholesterol: 13.6g
Notes
(calories based on a fatty beef stock, chicken or veg stock will be less calories)

 

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Vegetable Stock Cubes / Bouillon

I want to share a really basic recipe that I use in a lot and should add here to refer to. It was the very first recipe I made by Thermomix: Vegetable Stock Cubes / Bouillon.

Vegetable StockAt first I wasn’t sure if it was worth bothering, to be honest. Vegetable stock cubes are so cheap, and having them in a box is so convenient. But then I had a look at the ingredients and I realised that an attempt at cutting preservatives and additives out of our food falls flat if the very basic underpinning foundation ingredient contains those things.

Here are the ingredients of our usual vegetable stock cubes:

Salt, vegatable oil, potato starch, yeast extract, sugar, carrot (1.5%), tomato (1%), herbs (parsley, tarragon), spices (turmeric, pepper, celery seed), bell pepper (0.2%), garlic, leek (0.1%), flavourings (contains mustard), caramelised sugar, maltodextrin, dextrose

It’s not exactly poison, but compare it to this:

celery, carrots, onion, tomato, courgette, garlic, mushrooms, basil, sage, rosemary, parsley, oil and salt.

If I were to lay those ingredients out on a two plates, I know which one I’d go for.

While this recipe is an adaptation from the Australia Every Day Cookbook and is written for the Thermomix, there’s no reason why you couldn’t mix it in any high powered blender and make it part of your every day seasoning.

You cant freeze this stock, due to the high salt content, but it lasts really well in a jar in the fridge, and can be topped up with whatever you have on hand, really, but here’s a great starter recipe.

Home Made Stock Cubes/Bouillon {{Thermomix Recipe}}

Cuisine: Basic
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 litre
Don’t taste this recipe and fret over the salt. It’s VERY salty, but it’s a concentrate. A tablespoon full goes into a litre of liquid, i.e soup, of which you have a cup at a time. It’s lower in salt per serve than an egg! If you lower the salt amount you will have to freeze the stock, but with the correct salt, it won’t freeze at all but can keep in the fridge. The great thing about this recipe is that it is very flexible. You can use whatever you have in the fridge. I know a few people who pop all their vegetable scraps into the freezer to keep particularly for making this stock concentrate.
Ingredients
  • 2 celery stalks, with leaves
  • 2 large carrots, cut into chunks
  • 1 onion, peeled and quartered
  • 1 tomato, quartered
  • 1 courgette, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled
  • 50g mushroom (optional)
  • a teaspoon each of basil, sage, and rosemary
  • 20g parsley
  • 30g olive oil
  • 200g sea salt or pink salt (don’t use table salt, it’s very high in Sodium, which is what you want to avoid in a healthy diet)
Instructions
  1. Chop all the vegetables and herbs for <b> 10 seconds on Speed 7 </b>
  2. Add the oil and salt, and <b> cook at 90 for 20 minutes on speed 2 </b>
  3. It turns into an unappealing looking green gloop, but adds amazing flavour to all your dishes.
  4. Leave to cool and place in a jar in the fridge for up to six months.
  5. If using less salt, freeze in spoonfulls or ice cube trays and use as needed,
Calories: 2.3 Fat: 0.2 Carbohydrates: 0.2g Sugar: 0.0 Sodium: 3.8g Fiber: 0.1g Protein: 0.0 Cholesterol: 0.0

 

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Squash and Spinach Soup With Goat’s Cheese And Bacon Recipe

Squash & Spinach Soup with goat's cheese and baconConsidering how often I make soup these days, you’d be forgiven for thinking that I actually enjoy it! I’m not really a lover of soup, but with two children, a job and a home to run, it’s certainly an easy to prepare food, and easy to eat.

In the Thermomix soup is a 15-minute (non)effort, but of course you can adapt it to cook on the stove top or however you usually make your soup.

We have a further problem in our home, because I don’t like any kind of chunkiness in my soup, but my hubby prefers a chewable soup. If I’m feeling generous I’ll cook everything, remove his portion and then blits up mine. Otherwise, we have smooth soup. He’s coming round to it!

In this particular soup I used a Turkish Squash, which had a grey-ish colour, which no one was going to eat so I added some spinach to at least give it colour, additional nutrition and great flavour.

I particularly wanted a luxurious soup here, so we added goat’s cheese and bacon. These are optional extras, but totally worth it.

Also, because I was blending it with the Thermomix, I used almost all of the squash, seeds and all. This is best with a young squash so the skin is still soft. You don’t have to do that though!

 

Squash and Spinach Soup With Goat’s Cheese And Bacon Recipe
Recipe Type: Soup
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6
You can use any squash for this recipe.
Ingredients
  • 400 – 700 g squash
  • 1 onion
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 200g bone broth or stock
  • 1 sprig fresh rosemary
  • 6 rashers bacon
  • 50g spinach
  • 250g goats cheese
  • add cream/stock to preference
  • add salt/pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Cut squash into easy to bake portions – a pumpkin or large squash could go in 8 pieces, for example. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 45 minutes at 190C
  2. Cut an onion in half, add garlic, then blitz for 3 seconds on speed 5.
  3. Sweat the onions for 3 minutes, speed 1, 90C
  4. Add the squash, skin and seeds too, if you like.
  5. Add the stock or bone broth, rosemary, and salt and pepper.
  6. Cook for 15 mins/speed 2/100C
  7. Meanwhile fry bacon to make it crispy, and set aside.
  8. When the soup is finished, add the spinach and goat’s cheese and blits for 5 seconds on speed 7. (or as bitty or smooth as you like it).
  9. Add cream or extra stock to make the soup as thick or thin as you prefer.
  10. Serve with crusty bread or [url href=”https://www.keeperofthekitchen.com/2013/11/22/thermomix-brioche/” target=”_blank”]brioche [/url](without the chocolate!) and enjoy!