Warm-up with all the goodness mushrooms can provide.
Winter is the perfect time for warming dishes like soups, hearty stews and healthy meals to fight sickness and mushrooms are the perfect addition to any meal for a boost of flavour and many health benefits as they are packed with nutrients and minerals that you need to keep healthy. Among other things, they…
- Lower blood pressure: Mushrooms are high in potassium which acts as a counter to the negative effects of sodium consumption.
- Boost immune system: Mushrooms improve the efficiency of the immune system by stimulating microphages to increase it’s ability to fight off foreign bodies. They also have a natural anti-inflammatory effect on the body.
To get you started on your way of incorportating mushrooms into your soups, we’ve highlighted three delicious recipes.
- Brothy Chicken & Mushroom Soup
- Mushroom & Barley Soup
- Vegan Creamy Cashew Nut Mushroom Soup
Brothy Chicken & Mushroom Soup
Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
Broth base:
- 6 free range chicken thighs, skin on & bone in
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed
- ± 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- ± 3 bay leaves
- 4 large portabello mushroom steaks, roughly torn into chunks
- (or 6-8 large brown mushrooms)
- 2 carrots, roughly diced
- 2 onions, skin on, quartered
- 2 stalks celery, leaves included, roughly diced
- Handful fresh parsley
- ± 3l chicken / vegetable stock
To finish the soup:
- 1 large carrot, very thinly sliced
- 1 stalk celery, very thinly sliced
- 2 spring onions, finely sliced
- 250g white button mushrooms, sliced
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Fresh dill fronds, to finish
Method:
- Place chicken thighs in a large Dutch oven or soup pot.
- Add the garlic, thyme, bay leaves, mushrooms, carrots, onions, celery and parsley.
- Cover with enough chicken or vegetable stock.
- You can also use water.
- Bring to a gentle simmer.
- Cook until the chicken is very tender and pulls away from the bone. About 1 hour.
- Remove the chicken thighs.
- Discard the skin and bones. Shred the chicken and set aside.
- Continue to simmer the soup for another 30 min – 1 hour until the soup is concentrated in flavour and very tasty.
- Strain through a fine mesh strainer. Discard all the aromatics.
- Return broth to the stove. Taste to adjust seasoning. If you started with water you will need a good amount of salt and pepper.
To finish the soup:
- Add the finely sliced carrot, celery and spring onions. Simmer until tender.
- Add the white button mushrooms and simmer until just cooked through.
- Return the shredded chicken to the pot.
- Stir everything together.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and finish with plenty of fresh dill fronds.
- Serve with toasted slices of seed loaf and enjoy!
