Chicken Soup

Chicken soup meets so many needs.  It’s a comfort food.  It clears your head.  It may even lessen the effects of a cold.  

There are lots of pretty good soups available in the supermarket, but I think they all need doctoring.  They have more sodium than I need.  They may have less spice than I like.  So I start with a can of soup.  Drain the liquid into a pot and add three times the water.  Bring this to a boil and then add the good stuff.  I usually have all kinds of noodles, orzo (a rice shaped pasta), Israeli couscous (like ancine di pepe, but the size of large BBs).

I got mine at Trader Joe’s, but I see it is available on Amazon:

I may also use ancine di pepe (little balls of pasta), alphabets, tubetti (little tubes of pasta).  I use whatever appeals to me.  I usually add extra spices like pepper, parsley, basil or thyme, again whatever suits my fancy.  Boil these in the stock until the pasta is done, then add the rest of the soup can, bring to a boil and enjoy.  I like to top with grated cheese to add a bit more protein.  If I have chives or onion tops, I sprinkle those on, too.  Makes a hearty, satisfying meal.  And gives me three or four times the servings for not much money.

If you have some stock, you can buy dried or refrigerated tortellini to make a wonderful soup.

This is “Tortellini im Brodo”.  To a basic stock, I added carrots, celery tops, parsley, onion.  Then cooked the tortellini (I like Rana brand in the refrigerator case, but it’s expensive.)  It can be topped with parmesan cheese, but I think that overwhelms this soup.

This is homemade wonton soup.

It’s a bit more work.  I used store-bought wonton wrappers, and filled them with ground chicken seasoned with egg, crumbs, spices.  

I try to have chicken stock in hand at all times.  Then I can make many kinds of soups quickly.  Wonton wrappers can be sliced into noodles that cook in seconds.  And I just discovered a german “pancake soup” called “Flädlesuppe” (German Crepe Soup).  Make some crêpes.  Slice them into ribbons (the easiest way is to roll them like a cigar and slice rings).  Put them in the hot stock.  

As an emergency back up, I keep Minori soup base on hand.

Much better than bouillon.  Quick and easy.  

An idea I grabbed from America’s Test Kitchen is to add a bit of plain gelatin to give the mouth-feel of a good broth.  It works!

Jazz up your canned soup or make a fresh soup for dinner!