Hearty meals to start the winter right. Wiltshire’s soup and pilaf recipes to warm your healthy souls.

Winter is the season of hearty meals. From soups, oven-baked dishes, to toasty desserts. So, draw the curtains, light the fire and ready the stove for Wiltshire’s favourite soup and pilaf recipes.

Winter soup recipes is an ideal way to help the whole family boost their health as it’s packed with veggies, easy and budget-friendly to produce. Forget about boring tinned soups and prepare for ultimate flavour and comfort that will add some excitement to those drab winter days.

When I make rice pilaf, I expect two things: light, fluffy texture—the individual grains of rice should be firm and separate, not mushy and stuck together—and bold, full flavours. Fortunately, it’s easy to achieve both. The unique cooking process that gives pilaf its distinctive texture also provides several opportunities to incorporate flavour into the dish. Toast, simmer, and rest.

Let me know what you think on the below recipes.

Wiltshire’s Chipotle Roasted Pumpkin Soup

Recipe serves 4-6 and photography by Brodie Nalywajko


Ingredients
• 1.3kg butternut pumpkin, cut into quarters, seeds removed
• 60ml light olive oil
• 2 tbsp chipotle in adobo, finely chopped
• 160g store-bought chargrilled capsicum, seeds removed
• 500ml salt-reduced chicken stock
• Splash of milk
• 1 small chorizo, skin removed, finely chopped/crumbled
• Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• Parsley, to garnish

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC fan. Whisk together olive oil and chipotle in adobo, season with salt then rub all over the pumpkin quarters. Spread on a Wiltshire 26.5x21x2cm Enamel Tray and bake for 40 mins, turning every 10-15 mins. Allow cooling slightly then peel and discard the skin.
2. Combine pumpkin flesh and capsicum in a blender, add a small amount of stock and blend until smooth, adding enough stock to get the soup to a consistency you like. Add a splash of milk, season with salt and pepper and blend to combine.
3. Place the finely chopped chorizo in a large, cold frypan over medium-high heat. Fry until crispy. Serve sprinkled over the soup with a little parsley to garnish.

Wiltshire’s Spiced Chicken with Saffron Pilaf

Recipe serves 4 and photography by Kate Flowers

Ingredients
• 3 chicken Maryland
• Chicken Rub
• 1 tsp coriander ground
• ½ tsp cumin ground
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp dried mint
• 1 tsp paprika sweet, ground
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper

Pilaf
• ¼ tsp saffron threads
• 20 gm unsalted butter, coarsely chopped
• ½ onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 150 gm basmati rice, rinsed
• 1 tbsp dry white wine
• 120ml chicken stock, warmed
• 4-5 lemon slices

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 100°C. Toast saffron on a Wiltshire 26.5x21x2cm Enamel Tray until fragrant (5 minutes). Increase the oven to 180C. Add butter and onion to the tray and place back in the oven. Once the butter has melted, stir the onion and saffron to combine and place back in the oven until the onion starts to colour. 5-10 mins.
2. Meanwhile combine all rub ingredients before drizzling the chicken with olive oil and massaging evenly with the spice mix. Remove the tray from the oven and add the rice and garlic, stirring to coat.
3. Add wine, stock and seasoning to taste. Nestle your chicken pieces and lemon slices in among the rice, cover with baking paper and alfoil to seal and return the tray to the oven. Cook for 20 minutes before checking if the rice has cooked. Remove the paper and foil, toss the rice through cooking juices.
4. Turn the oven up to 200°C fan force and return the tray to the oven for ten minutes, or until the chicken skin has become golden brown and the juice runs clear from the joint. Sprinkle the tray with fresh mint and serve with steamed greens.