40 Soups - Mushroom

This week I made mushroom soup for the first time. I didn't follow a recipe (I rarely do for soups) I just thought about what I would like to do and went ahead.  It isn't the cheapest soup to make because it required a whole pack of mushrooms, but was very very tasty.

I used:
One pack of organic chestnut mushrooms,
One large organic onion,
Three cloves of allotment garlic,
One kallo chicken stock cube,
1 tbs organic olive oil,
A dash of organic double cream.

To begin I chopped the onion and garlic and fried it in the olive oil.  I then chopped the mushrooms and addded them till they went soft and watery.  Next I added enough water to cover the mushrooms plus a bit more and added the chicken stock cube.
After cooking for about 15 mins I blended the whole thing and added the cream.
Served with crusty white bread it was absolutely delicious and tasted just like a bought fresh mushroom soup.
What soup recipes do you love?

40 soups - 2. creamy chicken

Hi folks, so sorry for my absense, my laptop charger cable has broked and my hubby has been using the main PC in the house so haven't been able to get online much the last few weeks, also I have just been so busy; and not the kind of  "look how fun and exciting my life s I am far to busy for such trivialities as blogging" and more like a "I am so damn busy cleaning up poo and doing laundry and making dinners I literally havn't found a second to do a blog post, as soon as I sit down I fall asleep!"  kind of way.  Anhyhow, lets get going with a long awaited blog post that I started weeks ago and might noe finish:

A few months ago, a lovely lady from one of the blogs I follow, Elise Blaha, posted a series of recipes entitled "40 Loaves" where she baked 40 different bread recipes, blogged about each of them and included recipes for each.  After finishing this project she decided to embark on a new one.  Initially she thought "4 Soups" would be a fun idea, but she realised her husband didn't enjoy soups and thought the project wouldn't be so much fun to do alone, so instead she decided to a project called "40 pizzas"!  I however LOVE soups and make them often, so I thought it would be a really fun idea to blog about each of them and give you a recipe and photo to go with.

My second soup in this series is Creamy Chicken Soup.  I made this soup after wanting something tasty to do with leftover chicken bits and carcass.  As per usual, weights and measurements are approximate.  (You know me!)

Ingredients:

Olive oil,

1/2 onion,

1 clove of garlic,

Chicken carcass and bits,

1 chicken stock cube,

1/2 cup double cream.

Bring a large pan with the chicken carcass and pieces to the boil then let simmer with enough water to cover the bits.  

Cook until the chicken falls from the bones.

Leave to cool then remove all the chicken from the bones.  Take out any skin and fat that you can.
Fry the roughly chopped onion in a little olive oil, add some roughly chopped garlic.  Pour into the chickeny water and mix, heat till the mis if heated through.  Add the stock cude and stir it in.  Remove the chicken mixture from the pan and blend in a blender or leave in the pan and blend with a stick blender to a fine soup.  Add the double cream and stir in being careful not to let the soup boil.  Serve immediately with toast, yum!

40 Soups - 1. Spicy Lentil

A few months ago, a lovely lady from one of the blogs I follow, Elise Blaha, posted a series of recipes entitled "40 Loaves" where she baked 40 different bread recipes, blogged about each of them and included recipes for each.  After finishing this project she decided to embark on a new one.  Initially she thought "4 Soups" would be a fun idea, but she realised her husband didn't enjoy soups and thought the project wouldn't be so much fun to do alone, so instead she decided to a project called "40 pizzas"!  I however LOVE soups and make them often, so I thought it would be a really fun idea to blog about each of them and give you a recipe and photo to go with.

My first soup for this series is Spicy Lentil. It is a great recipe to make if you don't have much in the way of fresh veg in the house and good for tight budgets. Plus lentils have loads of wonderful vitamins and minerals.  The recipe serves 2 and I am afraid that (as with all my recipes and tutorials) measurements are approximate!  So I will leave you to be the judge when it comes to quantities and you can take my numbers as a guide.

Ingredients:
1 tbs olive oil,
1/2 onion,
1 clove garlic,
1 cup red lentils,
1/4 tsp ground corriander,
1/4 tsp paprike,
1/4 tsp ground cumin,
1/4 tsp chilli,
1 chicken stock cube,
600ml boiled water.

Chop the onion, and garlic and fry in a little olive oil in a large sauce pan, when softened add the lentils and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the stock cube and water and sprinkle in the spices. Stir to mix everything together.  Cover and leave until all the water is soaked up.  Continue to add water until you achieve a pleasing consistency and the lentils and cooked soft. Take out half the soup and blend, add back to the mixture and stir together.  Serve with toasted wholemeal bread and butter.  Perfect, thick warming and tasty.