Soothing

One of the worst things that can happen to a person who loves cooking and eating good food, is a bout of gastritis. I have never experienced anything like this before and let me tell you, it is not pleasant.

All I'm able to eat for the past few days is chicken soup, boiled vegetables, crackers and low-fat cheese a.k.a. your basic nightmare, or at least mine.

I'm feeling better today and hopefully I'll be fully recovered in a couple of days. Till then, let me have another spoonful of this homemade chicken soup.






Dedicated to all of you out there who have the flu, stomach problems, those of you who want to soothe your tummy for whatever reason or those of you who simply want to detox.

For obvious reasons, I was unable to take any photographs of the soup while I was preparing it. These photographs were actually taken the third day into eating this soup, when all the vegetables and chicken were already consumed by yours truly and I was down to eating just plain old chicken broth. Ah, the glamor of food blogging, right?





Soothing Chicken Soup with Vegetables

You can add whatever vegetable you want to this soup. It's a good way to clean out your refrigerator of all those vegetables you haven't had the chance to use.






Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients
1 whole small chicken, about 1 kg
1 large onion, peeled
2 large carrots, peeled and cut in half crosswise
2 large parsnips, peeled and cut in half crosswise
100 ml (about ½ cup) olive oil
1 vegetable or chicken bouillon (stock) cube
Tap water, cold
Salt
Pepper


Preparation
Place the chicken inside a large pot. Add the onion, carrots, parsnips, a little salt and pepper and the bouillon (stock) cube. Add enough water to almost cover the chicken and add the olive oil.
Turn the heat on to high and bring to the boil. Then turn heat down to medium-low and put on the lid. Allow to simmer for 30 to 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked (it should be falling off the bones) and the vegetables have softened.
If you want (I didn't), as the chicken is simmering, you can skim the fat/foam that collects on the surface of the water.

Turn off the heat, remove the onion from the pot and discard it. At this point, you can remove the vegetables and cut them into smaller pieces (I didn't bother doing that either).
Remove the chicken and place it on a tray or platter. Allow to cool down enough to handle. Pick the meat off the bones and cut them with your hands or a knife into bite-sized pieces.

If you want, you can pass the soup through a fine sieve. (Do I have to state the obvious and say that I didn't do that either?).

Return the vegetables and chicken pieces to the pot, check and adjust the seasoning, and serve.

It keeps excellently in the fridge for 3-4 days.