I love making chicken and vegetable soup! Whenever I am feeling rundown I get out my big saucepan, boil some water, add the chicken and vegetables, some garlic, mixed herbs, massel vegetable or chicken stock powder and inhale the amazing smells from my stove. My mother’s family are famous for their soup but my favourite soup was Nana Downie’s Pillow Meat soup. Mmm.. just thinking about it is making me drool! She used chicken giblets and they were so tender and flavoursome. Each batch of soup is different, depending on the vegetables, herbs and amount of chicken – but I love them all.
If you haven’t made soup before, below are some soup ingredients I recommend and then at the end a recipe for the Chicken and Vegetable soup I’m making tomorrow.
SUGGESTED INGREDIENTS
-
Bay Leaf
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Beans (Green)
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Bok Choy
-
Carrot
-
Cauliflower
-
Celery
-
Corn
-
Garlic
-
Kale
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Leeks (white part only)
-
Mixed Herbs
-
Onion (brown)
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Potato
-
Pumpkin
-
Spinach
-
Sweet Potato
-
Tomato
-
Turnip
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Zucchini
-
note – add bok choy, zucchini and other vegetables that cook quickly towards the end of the cooking process
Recipe: Chicken and Vegetable Soup
March 27, 2020
This chicken and vegetable soup recipe was created after years of being my mother's taste tester. My Mum and Nana made the best chicken and vegetable soup. It is one of the few recipes that I wrote down as we cooked so I wouldn't forget my favourite ingredients and steps. My mum didn't measure her ingredients, adding them intuitively and then had me taste it at each stage and tell her what it needed.
This recipe has a number of favourite ingredients for soup. Use what you have however carrot, celery, garlic, onion, potato and/or sweet potato are strongly recommended.
The quantity of soup depends on your ingredients and your saucepan size. I use my biggest saucepan which holds 4 litres. Add as much stock liquid to the saucepan but allow for all the ingredients that are added near the end.
Persons
5
Serving Size
400 ml
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Total Time
40 minutes
Ingredients
- Bay Leaf
- Beans (Green)
- Bok Choy
- Carrot
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Corn
- Garlic
- Kale
- Leeks (white part only)
- Mixed Herbs
- Onion (brown/yellow)
- Peas
- Potato
- Pumpkin
- Spinach
- Sweet Potato
- Tomato
- Turnip
- Zucchini
Instructions
- Start with the veggies that will take a while to cook.
- Sauté chopped onion, celery, carrots , leeks, potato, sweet potato, turnip and/or other seasonal vegetables that take a while to cook in olive oil, with some salt. This softens them and enhances their flavors. Adding salt during different stages of the cooking process builds more flavor than simply adding it all at the end.
- Add minced garlic, mixed herbs and pepper to taste
- Sautéing these ingredients for about 1 minute wakes up their flavors, but isn’t long enough to risk burning the garlic (burnt garlic tastes awful).
- Add fresh or canned diced tomatoes with their juices. Cook them for a couple of minutes to improve the flavor.
- In another saucepan or mixing bowl, create a flavourful vegetable broth from vegetable or chicken soup stock powder ( massel or vegeta are my favourites) and boiling water. If you don't have any stock powder then you can use stock from a previous soup. Salt to taste then add to the soup.
- Add diced chicken to soup, and stir. Gently simmer for 25 minutes so the flavours can meld together. If you have drumsticks, maryland or a whole chicken you can put them in whole however you then have to pick the chicken off the bones after cooking the soup if you do it this way. The flavour from the chicken bones and cartilage is worth the effort. If you leave the skin on the chicken, you will need to skim the fat off the top of the soup then, or before serving.
- Add chopped fresh greens (bok choy, kale etc) and zucchini sliced in thick chunks.
- Simmer for 5 minutes to soften them up. Add a splash of olive oil for rich flavor. Taste the soup before and after these additions, and you’ll notice a big difference! Finally, season to taste with salt and pepper, as necessary.
- Serve with buttered toast, cut into two triangles. Enjoy!
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