Comfort food.
March 14th, 2008
Some days I just get this urge to spend several hours preparing dinner. Gives you time to think, and there’s something so warm and cozy about sitting down with your kids to eat something that you’ve put some effort into, that also tastes wonderful. My boys even admitted this soup was seriously good, and they usually say ” ewwww” by default (they’re not to be taken seriously of course, everything I cook is delicious)
Felt like sharing the recipe for this, (which I sortof made up as I went along) just for the hell of it. Can be used as a base for all kinds of variations, for those not too dependant on recipes.
Creamy chicken & mushroom soup
4 chicken breasts (or an equal amount of other parts of the chicken, if you prefer) chopped rather small.
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed.
Olive oil
2 chicken stock cubes dissolved in about 750ml water
One large red onion, divided into quarters
5 medium carrots , cleaned (not chopped)
Half a lemon.
A good handfull of fresh thyme stalks.
1 tsp salt
5 large mushrooms, finely sliced.
Butter
White wine (optional but oh-so-much better)
100 g cream cheese
100 ml cream
1 tsp sugar
Heat a good splash of olive oil in a large pot, simmer the garlic very breifly and add the chicken
Fry, while stirring, until the pieces have turned mostly white.
Pour the stock over the chicken pieces. Add to the pot the carrots, lemon, onion and thyme. Cover and let simmer for 15 minutes. Remove the lemon, squeezing out most of the juice into the pot, and continue to simmer for half an hour.
Remove the carrots and onion and place in blender with a bit of the liquid from the pot. Blend until smooth. Remove the thyme stalks and discard. Pour the creamed vegetables back into the pot and stir. Salt to taste. You may need to add a little more water (100-300 ml)
In a smaller pot, melt 2-3 tablespoons butter until bubbly, add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, for a minute or so. Add a generous splash of white wine (100 ml or so) or, if you don’t have any, a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Add the cream cheese and stir until melted and smooth.
Add the mushroom/cream cheese mixture to the soup pot and stir. Add the sugar, to taste.
About 5 minutes before serving, pour in the cream. Serve with bread, butter and green salad (and the rest of the white wine, if used)
The bread pictured is my own recipe as well, made while the soup was cooking. I’m too lazy right now to write it down. Maybe i’ll put up a good bread recipe later on.
Note: The chicken will be very well cooked and somewhat dry, esp. if using white meat, if allowed to simmer in the soup the entire time. This is the method i used now, however, the chicken could be stir-fried and added after the vegetables have been removed for purreeing. Then, proceed as described above.
Enjoy.
