Friday, December 4, 2009

I’m never buying canned soup again

I’ve been sick for the past week (sadly, including on Thanksgiving) and nothing has sounded appetizing except for soup. I’ve tried everything to kick the craving from Progresso (blech) to Whole Foods soup bar (marginally better) to the Ramen House (we’re getting close).

Today I made this for lunch:



And now I’m serious when I say I’m never bothering with that store-bought crap again. I made this soup in 15 minutes, with ingredients that I already had on hand. I can’t even get to the store and back and microwave my soup in 15 minutes anyways, so it’s not like it even takes longer to make this soup! The keys to speed are cooking the stock and the chicken at the same time (in separate pans) and slicing the vegetables really thinly, so that they’ll cook faster.

Almost Homemade Chicken soup

1 ½ C Stock (I used Pacific’s Organic, Free-Range Chicken Broth)
Vegetables (I used 1 carrot, 1/3 onion and 1 green onion)
2 oz Pasta (I used Buckwheat Soba)
3 oz Chicken breast (Frozen is fine, doesn’t even need to be thawed)
Seasonings to taste (I used a little sea salt and black pepper on the chicken)
Medium saucepan
Small frying pan

1. Add about ¼ C stock to a small/medium saucepan over low heat.
2. At the same time, place chicken breast in small frying pan over medium heat.
3. Chop vegetables and add to stock. Let simmer for about 5 minutes, or until vegetables are soft.
4. Add about ¾ C stock to saucepan and bring back up to simmer.
5. Remove chicken breast from saucepan when almost cooked through, and chop in to bite-size pieces.
6. Add remaining stock to saucepan, along with pasta and bring back up to simmer. Simmer until pasta is almost cooked.
7. Add chopped chicken to saucepan about 1-2 minutes before pasta is cooked, and simmer until pasta is done. Pour soup into bowl, eat, and be magically cured of ailment. (No, seriously. It works. I added a tall glass of orange juice on the side to boost the curing effectiveness.)

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