It’s almost winter, as some of you have already started coughing and sneezing.  Longer nights and cooler days adding on top of extended working hours, busy schedules and continuous demands of life.  As the result, late autumn often makes us feel more tired, stressed and worn out.  This is the perfect time to allow your body to heal and catch up, in way of food.  Warm, wholesome, liquid style meals such as soups have been passed on from generation to generation as great remedy for the body and the soul.  Numerous varieties of such delicious dishes exist to satisfy any palate, but in western culture, chicken soup is the standard choice.   The ingredients in this chicken soup provide complex and quality protein, essential fatty acids, along with the well needed vitamins and minerals to repair and rebuild your body.  The unconventional addition of ginger and garlic is key here to boost your immune system and reduce inflammation.  Water is also a key ingredient in this soup, providing well needed hydration and medium for the immune system to work.  The only things lacking in this soup are preservatives, excess salt and sugar, along with stabilizers that are often added to takeout and canned soups.  Sick or not, we can all use a home cooked big bowl of chicken soup to give us a comfortable, internal hug on a cold day. 

This simple recipe is as quick as washing, chopping, and adding ingredients to a pot with water.  You can do just that, or a little bit more stirring and develop delicious depth of flavour as the recipe below does.  I recommend making a large pot and eating it regularly for duration of your cold.  This soup bowl provides nutrient rich food, keeping you feeling full, therefore reducing the temptation to look for treats inside candy wrappers or take-out boxes.  My biggest challenge when I’m sick, is decrease in will power, and increase in wanting take-out food.  Pizza, spicy take-out curries with Nan, burger and fries – you name it, as I’ve tried it in the past to make myself feel better.  These were not wise decisions as I’ve learned the hard way and further suffering the outcomes.  In the past, before The No-Diet Book, eating in such manner only prolonged my flu symptoms, further worsened my cough, decreasing my overall wellbeing.  Nowadays, things are significantly different as I make a big pot of this delicious soup, providing me with great depth of flavours to enjoy, as well as full nutritional profile, speeding up my recovery.  Furthermore, it’s as simple as heat and serve, requiring minimal time and energy to feed my hunger.

In consideration of ingredients, I often read recipes that mention to buy organic chicken, garden fresh vegetables, spring water and so on.  For me, this sounds great in theory but most of us simply lack the budget and the time to drive around gathering such foods from farms and/or local markets.  If you have such ingredients, great – use them.  For the rest of us, make a quick trip to the grocery store, pick up a nice looking chicken (choose the kind that already sliced into pieces, making the process even smoother for yourself), add fresh looking vegetables, and some cold water from the tap.  Cooking has to be simple and easy if you are to do it regular basis.  Bypassing catchy words like organic, free-range and so on, will simplify your cooking process.

You may be wondering, where are the noodles? Well, I don’t add pasta to my chicken soup as we over consume it.  I feel it’s not necessary to add empty carb calories when you really won’t miss the noodles in this delicious soup.  When it comes to superfoods that heal, I keep the calories nutrient rich.  Sufficient calories in this soup rendered from fat found within the chicken bones and skin.  But, these fat rich calories are justified by all the nutrients (essential fatty acids) you get as a result.  Pasta often lacks nutrient rich calories and therefore, not necessary when the purpose of food is to heal your body (you may be interested in: not all calories are created equal).

The following superfood chicken soup recipe is an ideal option during flu season, having a cold, or just desiring something warm and delicious. 

Chicken Soup Ingredients

Makes: 2 quarts or 6-8 large servings

1kg Chicken with Bone and Skin (2-3 chicken legs with back attached, plus 1 breast)

4 Celery – diced small

4 Carrots – diced small

1 medium White Onions – diced small

2 tbsp Ginger grated

4 cloves Garlic – grated

1 tsp Rosemary Herb

1 tsp Thyme Herb

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

Water – 2 litres as needed

salt and pepper to taste

Wash and pat dry chicken.

In a heavy bottom pan, heat oil and brown chicken pieces. Remove chicken onto a separate plate. If some of the skin gets stuck to the bottom of the pan, not to worry, scrape it with a wooden spatula (you can discard it or leave it in for more flavour).

To the same pot, add in all the small diced onion, 1/2 of diced celery, 1/2 of diced carrots – (save the rest for later) – ginger, garlic and herbs.  Sauté for 2-3 minutes.  Add back the chicken pieces, in between or under the vegetable mix.  Add enough water to fully cover the chicken pieces, plus 1 more inch.  Once the pot comes to a boil, lower the heat, cover and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Add in rest of the vegetables and if needed more water – stir, cover for another 30 minutes.  Cook until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender but not soft. Taste, add salt and pepper as needed.  I personally don’t add salt only some (1tsp) black pepper.

Remove pot from heat. Take out chicken pieces from the pot using tongs.  Rest the chicken on a plate to cool slightly.  When the temperature is ok to handle, use fork and knife to remove the chicken from the bone and skin.  Cut into bite size pieces and add only the meat back to the soup pot, discard the bones and skin.  Mix and enjoy.

Extra can be frozen but better yet, share some with friends.  And, feel better soon 🙂

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