I love soup. I love it from the time I pull the pot out of the cabinet until I sit down to a hearty bowl of wholesome, simple, and, what else can I say…comforting soup. Soup warms from the inside out. And with the cold front that moved in yesterday, I jumped in and made one last pot of chicken soup before the summer months point their sunny barbs at Texas, because if it’s warming on those cold days, it’s a gruesome prospect when it’s hot.
I took a small package of chicken wings out of the freezer, opened them and plopped them, still frozen, directly into a stock-pot half filled with water. I like to use chicken wings because the meat is tender and moist, but you can use whatever pieces you like best. When my chicken is falling off the bone, I take the wings out and let them cool so I can rub the skin off (this is the part my dogs love) and separate the meat from the bones; then toss the meat back into the stock pot and start adding to your soup.
Today I used a couple cloves of garlic, chopped asparagus from my garden, green onions out of the garden, shredded kale (yup, from the garden) spinach (garden). If I had it, I could’ve used celery too. I like carrots in there, although too many carrots can change the flavor because they’re actually pretty strong .
Use what your family likes to enrich your stock. And don’t forget salt–God put all that salt in water from one coast to another, so He must have wanted us to absorb some, right? Here’s a hint to make your chicken soup more enchanting: sprinkle in a few dashes of turmeric, a spice that has some curry in it, which gives it not just a nice flavor but some color–because chicken soup can look like dishwater. Don’t have turmeric? Use a couple drops of yellow food color to make your soup sparkle. Because, like my friend Charlotte likes to say, “Honey, if you can’t cook, at least make it look good.” Right on, Charlotte!
Today’s chicken soup is floating with leafy greens. Nope, the kale doesn’t taste like cabbage. No, there’s not too much onion in my soup. Its rich, thin stock is wired together with chicken and healthy with wilted greens. If you prefer a cream soup, then thicken it with corn starch dissolved in a cup of water, but let the corn starch cook into it or you’ll taste it-boo~boo. You can pour half and half into it if you have it on hand.
Clear, brothy soup or cream soup, it’s good stuff, and worth the wait. Cut some french bread, or open a sleeve of crackers to munch down alongside your bowl. Don’t forget to take left-over soup to work with you. When you heat it up in the microwave, your co-workers will be breathing it in, checking it out.
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