As those who follow these recipes know speed and monetary value are my main drivers. Today’s recipe adequately covers both. Obviously if you have a chicken carcass lying around then boil and use this for stock but never be worried about using stock cubes, these are instant and there are many different brands allowing you to use the ones which best suit your pocket. This recipe is much much cheaper than buying tins of soup and you have the satisfaction of knowing you made it yourself, especially when acting nursemaid to an ill family.

Cream of Chicken Soup

serves 8-10

Cream of Chicken Soup

• 2 large onions grated.
• 2 garlic cloves grated or 2 tsps of garlic granules.
• ½ tsp of dried thyme.
• ¼ tsp of paprika.
• 2 dsp of cornflour.
• 3-4 chicken stock cubes.
• 1½ litres of water.
• ½ litre of milk.
• ¼ tsp of white or black pepper, I like white pepper to cook and black to serve.
• 200 mls of double cream optional.
• A handful of fresh chopped parsley to finish.
• Black pepper to taste.

1. Heat a little oil and fry the onions slowly for 10 mins.
2. Add the garlic and the paprika and fry for another couple of mins.
3. Add the cornflour and evenly coat.
4. Add the water and the milk and slowly bring to the boil, stirring all the time to stop the soup from going lumpy.
5. Starting with 3 stock cubes crumble these into your soup, add the thyme and the pepper.
6. Cook for 30 mins and then taste, add another stock cube if needed.
7. If you are using cream add at this point and slowly bring back to the boil.
8. Add your parsley and black pepper to taste.

Serve with home made  bread and enjoy. Bread recipe here

Next week  at the request of a young person who suggested I should not assume people can cook the basics, I am going to put up a recipe for mince. As most mince packets come in 500g I shall explain how this can be turned into meals for 12 people. Intrigued then watch this space. For the mince recipe you shall need 250g of mince, 2 large onions, carrots, turnip, Bisto and Cornflour.

Mince