Turkey, pumpkin and wild rice soup
Turkey, pumpkin and wild rice in a thyme-scented broth.
About 1 hr · 380 kcal · 40 g protein per serving
Chicken, mushroom and spelt soup
Chicken and mushrooms with chewy spelt and parsley.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 12 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm the spelt is tender in 25 to 30 minutes
- Photograph the finished bowls
- Time
- About 55 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 385 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 41 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains gluten. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- chicken stock. Stock often contains celery, and sometimes gluten or soya; check the label.
Cooking steps
Warm the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat and cook the mushrooms for 6 to 8 minutes, until browned. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes more.
Add the spelt and stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, until the grains are tender but still chewy.
Add the chicken and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, until cooked through.
Cooked when: 74°C / 165°F in the thickest part. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Stir in the parsley and serve.
The useful detail
Validate the cooking time of the spelt you buy. Pearled spelt is tender in about 25 minutes; whole spelt takes an hour and needs soaking first, and the packet will say which it is.
Make it work for you
One serving is A large bowl, half the pan. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Pearl barley instead of spelt
Softer and starchier, and it thickens the broth more.
Per serving: about 5 kcal more, about 2 g less protein, about 1 g less fat.
Turkey breast instead of chicken
Leaner, with the same safe endpoint.
Per serving: about 10 kcal less, about 1 g more protein, about 1 g less fat.
Chestnut mushrooms
Deeper flavour and a darker broth. Nutrition is not recalculated.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A grain and chicken soup that eats as a meal. The spelt brings the fibre and the chicken nearly all the protein.
| Energy | 385 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 41 g |
| Fat | 8 g |
| of which saturates | 1 g |
| Carbohydrate | 40 g |
| of which sugars | 8 g |
| Fibre | 6 g |
| Sodium | 1,820 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| olive oil | 4.5 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 40 kcal | 0.0 g |
| mushrooms | 200 g | FDC 169251Mushrooms, white, raw | 44 kcal | 6.2 g |
| onion | 60 g | FDC 170000Onions, raw | 24 kcal | 0.7 g |
| spelt | 90 g | FDC 169745Spelt, uncookedFarro and spelt are closely related wheats sold under both names; this uses FoodData Central's spelt record. | 304 kcal | 13.1 g |
| chicken stock | 945 g | FDC 174536Soup, chicken broth, ready-to-serve | 57 kcal | 6.1 g |
| chicken breast | 250 g | FDC 171077Chicken, broiler or fryers, breast, skinless, boneless, meat only, raw | 300 kcal | 56.3 g |
| parsley | 5 g | FDC 170416Parsley, fresh | 2 kcal | 0.1 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 771 kcal | 82.4 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool it quickly, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours. The FDA chart gives soups and stews 3 to 4 days. The spelt drinks the broth; add water when you reheat it.
- In the freezer
- The same chart gives soups and stews 2 to 3 months in the freezer for best quality.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout, stirring so it heats evenly.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
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