I was asked to define what I meant by ‘proper soup’, well I mean edible and tasty!
So, after some trial and error I learnt how to make very simple and tasty chicken and vegetable soup.
It was after finishing eating dinner one day I looked over to the kitchen work surface and saw the rest of the chicken carcass still with quite a bit of meat on it. That’s it I thought, I’m going to make some chicken and vegetable soup. I’d seen a recipe but could only remember a small bit of it. I could have read a cook book and followed the instructions to the letter but I wanted to know how easy it was. Could I make a decent soup without the help of a cook book? Besides Delia, Jamie or the two hairy bikers would have only listed an ingredient I didn’t have.
I stripped the carcass down to the bone and put the whole lot onto a saucepan of water and brought it to the boil and then let it simmer for a while.
I strained the contents, picking out the meat and added it to the liquid that had been strained. Now I have chicken stock!
Next I cooked a finely chopped onion and a medium sized leak in the pan with a big nob of butter. Once the onion and leak was soft I poured in the chicken stock, along with all the chicken bits and bought to simmer.
To the chicken stock I added small chopped potatoes, carrots and seasoning and left to simmer. Once the vegetables were soft enough I blitz it with the blender, not too much as I do like a little texture.
There’s room for improvement but chicken and vegetable soup is a good place to start.
I have also made some really good mushroom soup and am looking forward to trying Lizz McCarthy’s ‘Yummy Farmhouse Soup’, a recipe she gave me earlier on in the year but I think it’s an ideal soup for the cold weather.