Chicken Soup for the Soul!!

Cooking Breakthrough

I’m ecstatic because I think I may have had my first cooking break through!!  Healthy food that tastes good.  I think it’s really important to have home cooked yummy food.  One of the main reasons being that you see what you put in it and can source good ingredients!!  I have been really struggling the last few years with ideas and being able to figure out how on earth I just ‘throw’ something together and make it taste good.  WELL!!!  I have realised that recipes are a pain.  I don’t like being so dictated to and I find it stressful.  I mean how many recipes am I going to have to remember to make it through Monday to Friday......maybe I’m the only one but arrgggghhhh figuring out what to cook every day has been driving me insane!!

So.  Today I googled for a bulk standard chicken and vegetable soup recipe.  Having got the framework I thought it looked a little tasteless and thanks to my South African boy.....I know that taste is pretty important (as I can often be found eating all sorts of dish water tasting serves because it’s either healthy or I don’t know better).   It’s great to have to have recipe books (especially Stephanie Alexander’s who’s recipes turn out flawless and delicious every time http://www.stephaniealexander.com.au/http://www.stephaniealexander.com.au/), but in my opinion I think they are for the special playful occasions.  I’m a bit over flicking through a book or searching online and then having to buy specific ingredients.  I want to Keep It Super Simple (my interpretation of K.I.S.S.)!!

So here are my chicken soup recommendation, WHICH I am sure is good as ‘the boy’ turned up his nose at the idea of chicken soup and exclaimed ‘South African’s don’t eat soup, that’s an English thing’.....and I have just seen him inhale a big bowl full......RESULT!!!  He is my guinea pig for taste and I know I have the health side covered.  Great team!

My advice is to use the recipe below as a skeleton / framework along with the notes underneath and change it up depending on what veggies are in season and what herbs you fancy!!  Enjoy.

Chicken Soup Ingredients

·         Tablespoon of oil and a knob of butter (I prefer to use cold pressed sesame oil or olive oil)

·         2 garlic cloves chopped into small pieces

·         Half a medium sized red chilli

·         1 ½ teaspoon of dried parsley

·         1 teaspoon of dried thyme or a couple of sprigs of fresh

·         Leek or brown onion diced

·         Large carrot diced

·         2 sticks of celery diced

·         2 zucchini (courgette) diced

·         1 swede or turnip diced

·         1 can of cannellini (butter) beans

·         1 cup of dried red lentils (very small ones)

·         1 litres of chicken stock and a couple of cups of cold water

·         1kg skinned chicken (inc) bones or 750g of chicken meat if not including bones.

Method

1.       Heat oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat.  Add leek and heat through for a couple of minutes until the leeks soften.  Add the garlic and chilli and heat through for a couple more minutes.  Add the chicken and brown on all sides. 

2.       Once the chicken is brown, add the celery, carrots, swede / turnip, zucchini, beans and lentils, stir around in all the juices.  Add the stock and the extra water if required, enough to cover the ingredients so just a few are poking out through the top.  Bring to the boil on a medium to high heat, then turn down to simmer on a medium to low heat for an hour or until the carrots (or root vegetables) are cooked through.

3.       You can take about half the soup out (preferably the bits without the meat) and use a hand blender to wizz...this brings about a lovely creamy consistency.  Then you can take the pieces of meat out and chop up and put back in to the soup (the meat was so tender I didn’t even bother with this). 

4.       Add salt and pepper to taste or dulse flakes when you eat it.  Serve up with yummy crusty bread and butter.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/705/hearty+chicken+and+vegetable+soup

The above website is what I based the recipe on and just used the beans and lentils I wanted instead of dry soup mix.  I also added chilli and the herbs for flavour.  Thyme and parsley in particular go well with chicken, as well as garlic and chilli.

Soup Basics

Here’s the key, you can use leeks or onions interchangeably, depending on the time of year: carrots, swede; turnip; sweet potato; pumpkin; butternut squash etc... even potatoes, go for whatever you have and just go by the rough quantities above.  Use a can of whatever beans you like, I love butter beans.  The idea for the beans is that when you blend some of the soup later it makes it creamy.  A cup of dried lentils is good, the smaller the better as they cook super quick.  I have bought my stock from Jock’s Ice Cream parlour in Albert Park http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1424015/restaurant/Victoria/Jocks-Icecream-Albert-Park. 

It’s all organic and I am paying for the convenience!

The basic steps are, fry leeks / onions / garlic / chilli first, add meat and brown, then add all the rest of the veggies / beans, cover with stock / water, bring to the boil then turn down the heat to simmer for an hour.  How easy is that??

Fun Fact

Did you know that before 1963 Australians ate 4.4kg of chicken per person per year, in 2005 it was 32.5kg per person per year!!  Maybe quality is better than quantity.  Could it be worth paying more for something that is a better bird?  Who want an imposter after all he he