Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes for warming autumn soups | Soup (2024)

Shredded chicken with wild mushroom broth

My version of chicken soup for the soul. Serves two to four.

For the broth
4 chicken thighs (550g), bone in, 2 skinned, the other 2 left skin-on
1 tbsp olive oil
3 carrots, chopped into 4cm pieces (no need to peel or trim)
3 banana shallots, cut into quarters lengthways (no need to peel or trim)
4 garlic cloves, crushed with the back of a knife (no need to peel or trim)
Finely shaved peel of 1 small lemon
1 sprig fresh rosemary
500ml chicken stock
300ml white wine
850ml water
30g dried wild mushrooms
1 tsp soft light brown sugar
Salt

To serve
5g tarragon leaves, finely chopped
5g chervil leaves, finely chopped

Mix all the thighs in a bowl with the oil and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt.

Just before serving, melt the butter with the garlic in a large, nonstick frying pan on a medium-high heat. Leave to bubble for a minute, then add all the mushrooms and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, and fry for eight minutes, stirring often, until golden-brown. Stir in the shredded chicken and cook for three minutes more, until warmed through.

Reheat the broth, if need be, then divide between four shallow bowls. Pile the mushrooms and chicken on top, scatter over the tarragon and chervil, and serve.

Chestnut, fennel seed and caraway soup

Serves four.

6 garlic cloves, 4 left whole with skin on, 2 peeled and crushed
1 small butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 3cm chunks
1 tbsp maple syrup
60ml olive oil, plus a little extra for serving
4 tsp caraway seeds, lightly toasted
4 tsp fennel seeds, lightly toasted
Salt
2 onions, peeled and finely diced
400g ready-cooked and peeled chestnuts, roughly chopped
800ml vegetable stock
225ml vegetable oil

Put the squash in a medium bowl and add the maple syrup, half the oil, half the caraway seeds, half the fennel seeds and three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt. Mix to combine, then spread out the squash on the oven tray. Roast for 30 minutes, until soft and golden-brown, then remove and set aside.

Heat the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil in a large, nonstick saute pan or saucepan on a medium-high flame. Add the onions, crushed garlic and three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt, and fry for about seven minutes, stirring often, until the onions are soft and golden. Add three-quarters of the chestnuts, leave them to cook for three to four minutes, stirring occasionally, then pour over the stock. Bring to a simmer, leave to bubble gently for three minutes, then turn off the heat.

Put the squash into a blender, and scrape in all the seeds and oil from the tray. Unwrap the roast garlic and squeeze the cloves out of their skins directly into the blender. Add the onion, chestnut and stock mixture, and the remaining teaspoon each of fennel and caraway seeds, and blitz smooth (depending on the size of your blender, you may need to do this in two batches).

Heat up the soup, if need be, then divide between four bowls. Sprinkle the fried chestnuts and seeds on top, drizzle with olive oil and serve.

Thai pork dumplings and noodles in broth

For the dumplings
1 tbsp dried chilli flakes, soaked for a few minutes in 3 tbsp boiling water
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
5 fresh kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, finely chopped
30g galangal, finely chopped
2 bird’s-eye chillies, finely chopped
10g dark brown soft sugar
15g shrimp paste
1 tbsp fish sauce
1½ tsp ground cumin
10g Thai basil, roughly chopped
15g coriander leaves, roughly chopped
500g pork mince (20% fat)
100g pork fat, finely minced (see introduction)
Salt and ground white pepper

To serve
500g cooked thin rice noodles
2 tbsp lime juice
20g picked small coriander stems

Tip the chilli flakes and soaking water into the large bowl of a food processor, and add the onion, lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal, chilli, sugar, shrimp paste, fish sauce, cumin, basil, coriander and a quarter-teaspoon each of ground white pepper and salt. Blitz to a smooth paste, then scrape into a large bowl. Using your hands, mix in the pork and pork fat until well combined, then form into 30 dumplings.

Strain the broth into a clean pot, then squeeze out the aromatics to extract as much flavour from them as you can. Bring the broth to a boil, add the dumplings, bring back to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for seven minutes.

• Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.

• Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay