SOUP RECIPE: How to make Chicken Soup

If you ever wondered how do you make a good soup, this winter warmer flu and cold busting Chicken Soup is a great way to fend of the winter flu and to warm you warm over this cold winter weekend. This recipe will have you testing those knife skills and test your chef skills as you make this soup from scratch.

Ingredients
1 chicken breast or 4 drum sticks (skin on and bone in)
2 Large Onions – 1 skin on (washed well) cut in 1/4’s the other peeled and finely chopped
4 stalks Celery- washed and roughly chopped (with leaves too)
4 large Carrots – 3 roughly cup up 1 finely chopped
1 Turnip – peeled and roughly chopped
1 Large Parsnip – peeled & roughly chopped
6 garlic cloves – give 4 a thump to break slightly then peel and finely grate the other 2
Thumb sized piece of fresh Ginger – thumped to break slightly
1 tsp whole Black Peppercorns
1 tsp Whole Cloves
Few sprigs fresh Thyme
2 Bay Leaves
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1-2 Chillies – seeded and finely chopped (use more if you can take the heat – it is good for the dreaded lurgy)
2 medium Tomatoes, peeled seeded and chopped
1/2 Lemon – juice and finely grated zest
Handful fresh Parsley – finely chopped
Handful fine pasta – alphabet pasta is good or use angel hair pasta broken up into little bits
Salt and pepper, to taste

How to make this Chicken Soup:
Place chicken, unpeeled onion quarters, celery, 4 bruised garlic cloves, roughly cut carrots, turnip, parsnip, bay leaves, whole cloves, peppercorns, ginger and thyme into a large saucepan.

Fill with about 4 litres cold water. Bring to boil over high heat, then cover and reduce heat to medium. Simmer 1 hour until the chicken falls off the bone and the broth has reduced by about a quarter.

Strain through a sieve, keep the chicken and broth, discard all vegetables and herbs. Keep the broth or stock aside – skim off any fat that might gather on top

Place olive oil, finely sliced onions, carrots, chilli, minced garlic and some more sprigs of thyme into a large saucepan. Saute gently until the onion is limp

Add the reserved broth and tomatoes. Bring to rolling boil then reduce heat to medium. Cook until carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.

Remove skin and bones from chicken. Shred meat into bite-size pieces.

Add chicken and pasta to soup. Boil another 5 minutes until noodles are soft

Stir through the chopped parsley and lemon then turn off heat

Stir through 5ml Raw Honey

Season to taste and serve piping hot.