Creamy Chicken & Brown Rice Soup

This is a very filling soup that my family love – great for a quick winter meal.  Serve with some fresh bread and a green salad, and it will feed about six people for a main meal.  The soup becomes quite thick as it cools down, and could be thinned down a little more with some milk if you like.  (We like it thick.)

If you have a big family, or like more veges in your soup, you can add more chicken to the soup (leaving the peas out) and cook at Varoma temperature with the peas and lots of other veges steaming on top – e.g. zucchini, carrot, broccoli, squash, asparagus. Place the steamed veges in individual bowls and spoon the soup over the top.

Creamy Chicken & Brown Rice Soup

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Rice and almond flour

• 50g of raw brown rice
• 50g raw almonds

Soup

• 1 onion, halved
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 stalk of celery, quartered
• 1 large carrot, quartered
• 30g olive oil or butter
• 300g cubed chicken
• 1 litre water (if using paste), or chicken stock
• 1 1/2 Tbsp chicken stock paste (recipe below), or omit if using chicken stock
• 100g raw brown rice
• reserved rice and almond flour 
• handful fresh parsley, chopped
• 100g frozen peas
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Mill rice in Thermomix bowl 1 min/speed 9.
2. Add almonds and mill 10 sec/speed 9. Remove rice and almond flour to a bowl and set aside.
3. Place onion, garlic cloves, celery and carrot into TM bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 5.
4. Add oil or butter and cook 3 mins/100C/speed 1.
5. Add chicken and cook 3 min/100C/speed 1.
6. Add water and stock paste (or chicken stock), brown rice and reserved rice and almond flour and cook for 30 mins/100C/reverse/speed 1.
7. Add parsley and peas and cook another 5 mins/100C/reverse/speed 1.
8. Add salt and pepper to taste (if you use stock instead of paste and water you’ll need about 2 tsp salt). Stir and serve.

Notes

Nut free version

• Replace almonds with 50g sunflower seeds, or an extra 50g of brown rice.

Grain free version

• Omit rice. At start of recipe, grind 100g almonds (or cashews) and set aside, adding back in later in the recipe. If you like you can add 150g cauliflower rice with the nut meal, and cook the soup for approx 20-25 mins. (Cauliflower rice is made by chopping cauliflower florets for 5 sec/reverse/speed 5.)

[Note: if you like it saltier, just add another spoonful of stock paste.  If you’re using bought stock powder, you may want to add some tamari for extra flavour.]

Chicken Stock Paste

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 300g of raw chicken
• 300g veges (leek/onion/shallots, carrot, garlic, celery, celeriac – your choice)
• few sprigs fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley)
• 1 bay leaf
• 150g coarse sea salt
• 50g white wine (or 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar)
• 1 clove and 5 coriander seeds

Instructions

1. Place chicken into Thermomix bowl and chop 10 sec/speed 6.
2. Add veges, herbs and bay leaf, and chop 10 sec/speed 5.
3. Add salt, white wine (or vinegar), clove and coriander seeds (or ground spices).
4. Cook 20 mins/Varoma/speed 2, with simmering basket on top instead of MC (to allow steam to escape).
5. Replace MC and blend 1 min/speed 10.
6. Use 1 Tbspn stock paste in 1 litre water for chicken stock, or to taste.