Chicken Gnocchi Soup with Spinach and Carrots: Step-by-Step Instructions

Instructions

1. Warm the olive oil and butter in a large heavy pot over a medium heat. The oil stops the butter from browning, and you want the butter here for flavour rather than colour.
2. Add the onion, carrot and celery with a good pinch of salt and cook for 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is translucent and the carrot has lost its raw edge. Salting now draws moisture out of the vegetables and helps them soften rather than fry.
3. Stir in the garlic, thyme and oregano and cook for 1 minute more, just until you can smell them. Garlic burns in a hot pot in well under two minutes, and burnt garlic will follow the soup to the table.
4. Scatter the flour over the vegetables and stir constantly for 2 minutes. Cooking the flour removes its raw taste and coats every piece of vegetable, so it disperses into the stock instead of forming lumps.
5. Pour in the chicken stock a ladleful at a time for the first two additions, stirring each one until smooth, then add the rest. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 8 minutes, until it has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
6. Add the cooked chicken and the nutmeg, and let the soup come back to a bare simmer. The chicken is already cooked, so it only needs to warm through; boiling it hard now makes it stringy.
7. Turn the heat down to low and pour in the cream, stirring as you go. Keep the soup below a simmer from this point: cream that boils will separate into grains of curdled protein and a slick of fat, and no amount of stirring brings it back.
8. Add the gnocchi and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until they rise to the surface. Shop-bought gnocchi are already cooked and need only reheating; left any longer in a hot liquid they absorb it, swell and collapse into paste.
9. Stir in the spinach and let it wilt for about 1 minute off the heat. Residual heat is more than enough, and it keeps the leaves green instead of olive.
10. Taste and season with salt and plenty of black pepper. Stocks vary enormously in salt, so season only at the end, when the cream and gnocchi have already diluted everything.

Recipe Variations

With bacon. Render 100 g of diced smoked bacon in the pot before the vegetables, then cook them in the fat. Scatter the crisp pieces over each bowl rather than stirring them back in, so they stay crunchy.

Mushroom and chicken. Brown 200 g of sliced chestnut mushrooms separately and fold them in with the chicken. They need a dry, hot pan to colour, which is why they do not go in with the carrots.

Without chicken. Use vegetable stock and double the vegetables, adding 200 g of white beans with the stock. The beans supply the protein and some natural thickening.

Lighter version. Swap the cream for 250 ml of evaporated milk. It will not split even if the pot does boil, which makes it a sensible choice if you are cooking while doing three other things.

Cheesy. Stir 40 g of finely grated Parmesan into the soup with the spinach. Add it off the heat and in handfuls, or it will clump.

With kale instead of spinach. Use 100 g of shredded kale, but add it with the chicken rather than at the end; it needs 8 minutes to soften, where spinach needs one.

Serving Ideas

This is a bowl that needs bread beside it. A warm focaccia, a torn baguette or garlic bread all work, and any of them give you something to chase the last of the broth with.

Because the soup is rich, a sharp salad alongside earns its place: rocket with lemon and olive oil, or a simple chopped salad with red wine vinegar. The acidity resets the palate between spoonfuls in a way that nothing in the pot can do on its own.

Finish each bowl at the table with black pepper, a little grated Parmesan and a few torn basil leaves if you have them. A squeeze of lemon over the top is unconventional but very good, particularly if your stock was on the mild side.

For a larger meal, serve smaller bowls as a starter before a roast chicken or a simple baked fish. Six portions becomes eight or nine at that size.

Keeping It Fresh

The soup keeps in the fridge for three days in a sealed container. The gnocchi will continue to soften overnight and will be noticeably puffier the next day, which is perfectly edible but not at its best. If you know you will have leftovers, cook only the gnocchi you need and keep the rest of the packet sealed.

Reheat gently in a pan over a low heat, stirring often, and stop as soon as it steams. A microwave will overheat the cream in patches and split it, so use the hob if you have the two minutes.

It does not freeze well. Cream separates on thawing and the gnocchi turn to paste. If you want to freeze something, freeze the soup base before the cream, gnocchi and spinach go in; it holds for three months and you can finish it in ten minutes.

Soup that has thickened too much in the fridge, which it will, loosens with a splash of stock or milk during reheating. Do not add water, which dilutes the seasoning along with the texture.

Reader Questions Answered

Can I use raw chicken instead of cooked?

Yes. Dice 450 g of boneless thighs or breast, brown them in the pot before the vegetables, then lift them out and return them with the stock. They will finish cooking in the 8 minutes of simmering.

Why did my soup curdle?

It boiled after the cream went in. Cream splits above a gentle simmer, and acidic stock makes it happen faster. Keep the pot on low once the cream is in, and never let it bubble hard.

Can I make this ahead?

Make the soup base through to the cream and refrigerate it, then reheat gently and add fresh gnocchi and spinach when you serve. Gnocchi left sitting in the soup overnight turn to mush.

Can I use frozen gnocchi?

Yes, straight from the freezer with no thawing. Give them 5 to 6 minutes instead of 3 to 4, and expect the soup to need a minute to come back up to temperature.

What can I use instead of double cream?

Single cream or whole milk works but gives a thinner soup, so add an extra tablespoon of flour at the roux stage. Evaporated milk is the most stable substitute and will not split.

Wrapping Up

Soften the vegetables, cook the flour, add the stock, then keep the heat low for everything that follows. Cream below a simmer, gnocchi in for three minutes, spinach off the heat. Those three rules are the difference between a smooth, restaurant-style bowl and a split, starchy one.

It takes forty minutes and uses one pot, and it is better the way you make it than the way most places serve it, because the gnocchi have not been sitting in a hot urn since lunchtime. Keep a packet of gnocchi in the cupboard and this becomes a dinner you can decide on at six o’clock.

Related recipes: Baked Spinach Artichoke Dip with Three Cheeses, Breakfast Burritos with Egg, Cheese and Potato, Garlic Butter Chicken Thighs with Lemon, Chicken Cobbler with a Golden Biscuit Top, High Protein Jello Cups Greek Yogurt.

Learn more: Chicken on Wikipedia · food storage & safety (FoodSafety.gov).