Moroccan Chicken and Pumpkin Soup
When winter arrives, which happened officially yesterday despite the cold setting in a few weeks ago, I want comfort food. Rich, hearty dishes that will warm you from the inside. The kind that need to be be cooked slowly and with love to bring out all the flavours.
Comfort food takes time and I am not normally one to let someone else do the hard work for me when it comes to cooking. I guess I have always thought it would be akin to cheating. After all, I am the chick who makes her own stocks and sauces from scratch and spends hours with the mortar and pestle grinding spice blends and curry pastes.
So when recently asked if I wanted to test out the new winter range of McCormick Slow Cookers Recipe Bases, I was initially wary. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to give them a chance since they claim to have no artificial colours or flavours and no MSG. If I didn’t like it, well – no-one was going to force me to eat it were they?
The first one I tried was the Moroccan Chicken and Pumpkin Soup. Not too many ingredients (and I had most of them on hand), and straightforward instructions. In the sachet you get the seasoning mix and dried chickpeas. You need chicken thighs, pumpkin, carrot, fresh coriander and water.
First step is to chop everything up. I am meticulous when it comes to removing fat from chicken thighs so this took me a little while. Brown the chicken and the pumpkin separately (I have only realised now that I forgot to include a carrot!) and layer in Slow Cooker. Rinse the dried chickpeas and add them.
Mix the seasoning mix with a litre of water, pour over chicken and vegetables and give a little stir. Cover, turn on your slow cooker and forget about it.
There are two options for cooking times if using an electric slow cooker – put it on high and cook for 4 hours or put it on low and cook for 8 hours. I cooked mine on high. I checked it once or twice whilst it was cooking – just out of curiosity. It looked and smelt fine. The level of liquid was good and all ingredients seemed to be cooking evenly.
To serve I added a handful of fresh coriander leaves.
The verdict?
I surprised myself by really liking it. I expected it to be overly salty and was pleased to find that it wasn’t. Overall the flavour was far more natural and balanced than I had anticipated. We have eaten it twice now – on the day I made it a week later after freezing it and reheating. The reheated version was possibly better than the original. The pumpkin had broken down a bit more and thickened up the stock. The Beloved was surprised that it had come from a packet and wants to know when I will be making it again. In all, a good easy way to provide a tasty dinner.
A few observations:
- the 15 minutes preparation time is after you have done all the chopping, which can also take 15 minutes
- with only 1 litre of water I think it serves 4 not 6 if you are having it as a main. It would obviously stretch further if it was an entree or had accompaniments
If you don’t have a slow cooker, I am sure this would work equally well on the stove top or in the oven. I checked out the McCormick website (here) and was pleased to find it has very handy hints on how to accommodate the nuances of different slow cooker brands and instructions for stove top or oven cooking.
The Slow Cooker and Recipe Bases used by Second Helping in this meal were kindly provided by McCormick Foods.
And what is in the mix? Just curious.
Good question – I should have covered that. The seasoning included cumin, garlic, onion, paprika, pepper, chilli, coriander, parsley, salt and sugar.
haha my post this evening sounds very similar!! Winter = comfort food = soup! Love it!
Looking forward to trying this one! Checked out the shops the other day and couldn’t see it yet.
I resort to powder mix sometimes… Like you said, some of them can be quite decent, right?
I have purchased this particular product for some time and swear by this product. Both our super markets have upgraded their stores and don’t stock the Moroccan pumpkin chick pea curry, do you still make this product and if so what super markets stock it. I’m currently living in oamaru and I assume this is a new Zealand website thanks for your time and this wonderful product. If this product does not exist any more could you tell me how much Moroccan powder mix is in the recipe so I can put this mix together my self julie