Chicken sweetcorn and tarragon chowder

For lunch on a blustery autumnal day this is the perfect soup, warming, comforting and frugal. I love chowder recipes as even though the resultant soup is creamy and rich there is actually no cream in the recipe.

The double addition of potatoes are the secret to a great rib sticking chowder and this recipe came about as I had some tinned sweetcorn and cooked chicken left in the fridge.I had recently cooked a whole chicken in the slow cooker so I also had a small quantity of rich chicken stock as well.

Easy to throw together so why not have a go at making this lovely soup....

What you need

• 1 large white potato - peeled and diced. Retain 1/3 for later
• 1 large white onion - peeled and finely diced. Retain 1/3 for later
• chicken stock 
• Milk or water
• Tarragon - fresh a few leaves, finely chopped
• 1/2 tin of sweetcorn, drained, you could use fresh or frozen also
• Cooked chicken - shredded
• Salt and Pepper
• A little oil or butter

What you do 

• Heat a little oil in a large sauce pan and gently saute the 2/3rd's onion and potatoes until softened slightly
• Add chicken stock and milk or water to the pan until the is about 1/3 rd full of liquid, simmer until the vegetables are tender and the potatoes break up easily.
• Cool slightly then blend with a stick blender until you have a smooth liquid, you can add more liquid if necessary if the soup is very thick.
• Add the retained onions and potatoes to the pan and bring back to simmer and cook until the potato chunks are tender, add the drained sweetcorn, shredded chicken and tarragon to the pan, simmer for a couple of minutes to warm the chicken through.
• Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste
• Serve with warm crusty bread or traditional New England style with saltine crackers.

Cream of mushroom, mustard and tarragon soup

                                        

Two of my fellow food bloggers, Sue over at Heaven on a Plate and Janice at Farmersgirl Kitchen have launched a monthly cook along for any Nigel Slater recipe, I have quite a few of his books in my extensive cookery book collection, Nigel Slater is my style of cook, cooking seasonally and using what he grows and purchases locally, he is the only TV cook my husband will watch, that says a lot.

When I saw this challenge I knew I had to take part, so a quick rummage in the bookshelves and I came up with this hybrid combination inspired by mushroom soup from Real Fast Food ( a very early Nigel) pg 164 and Roasted mushroom with mustard and tarragon in Kitchen Diaries 1 Pg 279.

A delicious easy creamy mushroom soup with the great inspired additions of a touch of dijon mustard and the herb tarragon,  I didn't have any fresh tarragon as perscribed so I used dried and it worked fine.Nigel's recipes are of simple but always inspired and the mustard and aniseed back note of the tarragon combined well with the earthy mushrooms.

Tomato and Tarragon Soup

As things are turning distinctly autumnal and having picked lots of vegetables from the garden recently, I am inspired to make soup. I am very fussy when it comes to soup, I am not  a fan of anything in a can and only really like homemade or may be New Convent Garden cartons.  I think this is  mainly because I like to know what is in the soup. A quick turn round the garden produced the ingredients for this soup. Credit for the lovely Foccacia has to go to Moreartisan bread.

Ingredients

• Tomatoes, chopped, but still with skins, pips, etc. You could use tinned if you haven't got fresh.
• 1 large onion chopped.
• 2 cloves of garlic - crushed.
• Butter - large knob of.
• Chicken stock.
• Tarragon- fresh or dried.
• Lovage - fresh.
• Salt & pepper to taste.

Method

Melt the butter in a large pan and start by sweating off the onion and garlic, until slighty softened. Now add the tomatoes and herbs, cook these gently for a few minutes, don't allow to colour. Now add the stock, you will need enough to cover the vegetables, simmer gently until all the vegetables are soft and the tomatoes broken down. Now seive into a clean pan, removing all the vegetables, pips and skins, taste for seasoning and add to taste. If the soup is too thin for your liking, then thicken with slaked cornflour. Serve with bread for a delicious treat.