I’m a big fan of Jo Whitton, known to many as Quirky Cooking.
Jo has shared her journey with food and wellness via her Quirky Cooking site and cookbook and the gorgeous book Life-Changing Food with co-author Fouad Kassab. Jo also has an online program, Quirky Cooking for Gut Health. She’s great!
I don’t really have foods that I avoid – though I definitely prefer cooking from scratch to processed junk – but I truly love Jo’s approach to flavours and methods. She’s so clever and her food is delicious. This Creamy Chicken and Brown Rice Soup always gets a big showing in our winter repertoire. Thanks Jo, for letting me share your great recipe here!
Makes: about 1 litre
Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 50 g raw brown rice
- 50 g raw almonds
- 1 onion, halved
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 stalk of celery, quartered
- 1 large carrot, quartered
- 30 g olive oil or butter
- 300 g cubed chicken
- 1000 g water
- 1½ Tbsp chicken stock paste or vege stock paste (or to taste)
- 100 g raw brown rice
- ground rice & almonds
- handful fresh parsley, chopped
- 100 g frozen peas
Method
1. Place rice into mixing bowl and grind 1 min/speed 9.
2. Add almonds and grind 20 sec/speed 9, or until fine. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
3. Place onion, garlic cloves, celery and carrot into mixing bowl and chop for 3 sec/speed 5.
4. Add oil (or butter) and cook for 3 mins/100°C/speed 1.
5. Add chicken and cook 3 min/100°C/speed 1.
6. Add water, stock paste, rice, and reserved ground rice and almonds, and cook for 30 mins/100°C/Reverse/speed 1.
7. Add parsley and peas, cook another 5 mins/100°C/Reverse/speed 1.
8. Adjust seasonings if needed, and serve.
Variations
- Nut free version – Replace almonds with 50 g sunflower seeds, or an extra 50 g of brown rice.
- Grain free version – Omit rice. At start of recipe, grind 100 g almonds (or cashews) and set aside, adding back in later in the recipe. If you like you can add 150 g 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.)
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