Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Soup

This time of the year calls for soups-a-plenty and I'm even more of a fan if I can dump everything into my slow cooker and let that do all of the work. 

If you prefer, you can use creme fraiche or even double cream as the 'creamy' element, I just happened to have some leftover ricotta and experimented with a great result.

The below makes enough for x6 adult portions, it freezes well and can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week after cooking once cooled completely. 

Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Soup

Here's how:

• 3-4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• 150g mushrooms
• 1 white onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 celery sticks
• 1 tsp English mustard
• 1 chicken stock cube - made up with 1 litre of water
• 200ml semi skimmed milk
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 130g ricotta 
• Salt & black pepper
• Few parsley leaves to garnish (optional)

Roughly chop the onion, celery and garlic and add to the slow cooker. Halve the mushrooms and add these too. 

Cut the chicken into large chunks and add to the slow cooker. 

Make up the chicken stock and pour into the slow cooker with the milk. 

Add the ricotta, mustard and dried thyme to the pan, season generously and stir well. Place onto the lower heat setting and cook for three hours. You can stir every 35-40 minutes if you wish but it is fine to be left.

Once 3 hours have passed, turn off the slow cooker and blitz with a hand-held blender until smooth enough for your liking. Season again and place the slow cooker onto 'warm' until ready to serve. 

Ladle into bowls and add a little parsley garnish if you wish as well as a final seasoning of black pepper. Enjoy!

Some other soup recipes you may enjoy can be found below:

Red Lentil & Chorizo Soup

Fish Chowder

Alphabet & Hidden Vegetable Soup

Mexican Mushroom Soup

Restorative Green Soup

Curried Parsnip and Spinach Soup

Roasted Tomato & Basil Soup

Thai Sweet Potato Soup

Chunky Lentil, Bacon and Kale Soup

 

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

Homemade mushroom soup is one of my absolute favourites, and when you can make it with wild mushrooms there is nothing better.  There's currently a green grocer stall in the outside section of Borough Market selling about 300g of woodland wild mushrooms for £3.50 so this week I took full advantage and have enjoyed this glorious soup for three days solid.

You can make it with any mushrooms though and it'll still be tasty so if you can't get the wild mushrooms, just use a mixture of what you can get hold of locally.

This is a completely vegetarian meal and if you wanted to adapt it to make it vegan, you could just omit from using the cream, or use a plant-based variety such as Elmlea Plant Double.

The below makes enough for x4 full portions.

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

Here's how:

• 1.5 tbsp olive oil
• 400g wild or mixed mushrooms
• x1 leek
• x1 red onion
• x1 clove of garlic
• x3 celery sticks
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• Pinch black pepper
• 1.5 pints vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp single cream

Firstly drizzle the oil into a heavy bottomed saucepan and place on a low heat. 

Now peel and dice the onion, mince the garlic, slice the leek finely and the celery and place into the pan to gently soften - this is your soup base. 

Now roughly chop the mushrooms and once everything is softened in the pan, add the mushrooms and allow them to get a good coating of the olive oil. Season with a pinch of salt and black pepper now.

Add the dried thyme, which really complements mushrooms, and pour over the stock and bring to a gentle simmer for 20 minutes.

Now blitz the soup - I use my Nutribullet so I always allow the soup to cool a little first to avoid any explosions! 

Once blended, return to the heat and once warmed through remove from the heat and stir through the single cream. Add a tiny drizzle to each bowl once dished up as a pretty garnish.Enjoy!

If you're also making the most of soup season; here are a few other soup recipes you might like:
Restorative Green Soup
Alphabet and Hidden Veg Soup
Winter Vegetable Soup
Red Lentil and Chorizo Soup
Thai Sweet Potato Soup
Curried Parsnip and Spinach Soup

Mexican Mushroom Soup

This is a gorgeously moreish and filling soup - intense in mushroom flavour with a warm smoky spiced punch cutting through. 

This recipe is very loosely based on Thomasina Mier's 'Herby Mushroom Soup from the book 'Mexican Food Made Simple'. I've adapted it due to ingredient substitutions according to what I had in stock, and also out of convenience. I decided to inject some smoky charred flavour with chipotle paste and paprika, rather than first dry roasting the tomatoes, chilli and onion for speed, and I cooked everything in the one pan rather than three, mainly to reduce the clearing up process after a long day with my two girls. The final soup was utterly delicious but I will try the original at one point.

I also used a scotch bonnet chilli rather than jalopeno - not conventionally Mexican but it is Caribbean in origin and it did work. 

Mexican /Mushroom Soup

This makes x4 adult portions as a main meal. 

Here's how:

• 1 large white onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 scotch bonnet
• 3 tomatoes
• 600g mushrooms (try and use a variety if you can)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1.2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground anise
• 1.5 tsp chipotle paste
• Small bunch coriander leaves and stalks
• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 1 litre vegetable stock

Optional:

• Sour cream or creme fraiche

Firstly pour the oil into a saucepan and place on a medium heat. 

Finely dice the onion and mince the garlic and add to the pan. Carefully chop the scotch bonnet, removing the seeds unless you're an absolute chilli fiend and add to the pan. Make sure to wash your hands after handling these.

Roughly chop the tomatoes and add to the pan. Throw in the salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, anise and chipotle and allow to cook down for a few minutes, stirring gently. This will provide the base flavour for your soup.

In the meantime rough chop the mushrooms and add to the pan. Pour over the stock and add the coriander leaves and stalks too. 

Slowly cook until the soup comes to the boil, then simmer for ten minutes and remove from the heat. 

Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes and then blitz with a blender. 

Re-heat until warmed through and serve with a teaspoon full of creme fraiche or sour cream and some buttered bread. Enjoy!

If you're keen on more soup recipes here are a few more:

Asparagus Soup with Crispy Bacon
Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup
Curried Parsnip and Spinach Soup
Red Pepper Soup
Chicken Noodle Soup with Pak Choi
Vegetable Soup
Thai Sweet Potato Soup
Chunky Lentil Bacon and Kale Soup
Skinny Broccoli and Fennel Soup
Creamy Mushroom Soup with No Cream
Quick Pork Noodle Soup
Leek Potato and Cauliflower Soup