Hearty Chicken Soup with Mushrooms, Leek and Wild Rice

First up, I thought that I should qualify that I am no health nut and that this is not a health blog. In fact, I  still turn pale after 5 flights of steps. Escalators and elevators are my best pals. I visit them whenever I could everywhere I go.

But I find this pretty interesting and I really do want to share it.

Some time back I picked up the book Super Immunity by Joel Fuhrman from a bookshop and learnt a few surprising info. Although these "info" are well backed by researches, you can bet your liver that there will always be other researches somewhere out there that contradict them and that the author might pick and choose those that supports his argument. So read with a pinch of salt. Oh by the way, not too much salt, but I guess you already knew that.

One of the interesting "info" that I learnt was that mushrooms contains many good-for-your-health nutrients. See a short write up here at Bon Appetit and also at Daily Mail. Same thing goes for the allium family of vegetables, which includes onions, garlic, leeks, chives and scallions.

So this recipe from Soups & Stew by Cook's Illustrated was just the prefect prescription.

Whenever I roast a chicken, I will strip the meat off and throw all the bones into a pot with carrots, onions and celery to make chicken stock. Extra mileage from the same chicken.

So with my chicken stock ready, I only have to par-boil the wild rice and cook the vegetables. This soup can come together in less than half an hour, with washing up included.

When I made this soup, I was not entirely sure that our little princess would take to it. She loves mushrooms and ate half a bowl of the soup, which is already more that what I had hoped for. Well, ... kids. I will have to just keep trying.