Golden Winter Chicken & Veg Soup
Rating:
Ingredients:
- 1 whole raw chicken (around 1.3kg)
- 2 litres water
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1 leek
- 1 kg pumpkin
- 2 carrots
- 1-2 ribs celery
- 1 ½ cups pasta or a few handfuls of noodles (regular or gluten-free; whatever shape is your preference)
- A few handfuls of baby spinach
- A handful of peas
- A handful of parsley
- Salt, to taste
- Pepper, to taste
Method:
- Remove chook from any packaging. Wash in sink, and place in a large soup pot with a fitted lid. Pour over the water. Turn heat to high and bring to a boil.
- As the temperature’s rising, remove seeds/pulp from pumpkin (the part you’d usually discard) and chuck it in the soup pot. Cut the top and bottom off your carrots (just a bit) and add that in too. Peel the carrot and chuck the skins in the pot. Chop the end off one side of the garlic and, with the skin still on the garlic, crush the cloves with the back of a knife and chuck into the pot. Add in any celery leaves. Finally, cut the green leaves off the leek, finely slice about one cup and add to pot. Discard the rest of the leaves and keep white part aside.
- Once water is boiling reduce to a simmer, cover with lid and leave to cook for around an hour. Check the pot a few times throughout and remove any white scum that has come to the surface with a spoon.
- While the stock is cooking prepare the vegetables. Slice leek in half, then slice each half finely. Repeat with carrot and celery, although they can be a little chunkier - depends how you like it! Very carefully slice pumpkin, remove skin and discard, and then dice flesh into small bite-sized pieces.
- Once an hour has passed, remove chook carefully from soup and place into a tray. Keep aside to cool. Strain stock through a colander into another pot. Discard veggie peels.
- In the original soup pot add a good drizzle of olive oil. Add the sliced leek into pot and sauté for five minutes over the medium-low heat. Add pumpkin, carrot and celery and sauté for another few minutes.
- Pour in stock. Turn up heat to a boil, then reduce and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add pasta or noodles and cook for another 10 minutes.
- Time to season! As your stock is homemade, it’s going to need a fair bit of salt - it might surprise you with how much! Start by tasting it without any salt (you’ll notice it’s very bland). Then add 1 Tbsp of salt and give it a good mix. Taste again - does it need more? Thereafter add a teaspoon, taste and repeat until it tastes ‘just right’ (I did about 2 Tbsp for my pot, but sometimes it varies!). Add ground pepper to taste.
- Add frozen peas, spinach and finely sliced parsley to soup. Stir and cook on a simmer for another few minutes. Using a few fork shred the meat off the chook, and add back into the pot. Enjoy!
Notes:
Egg-free? Make sure your pasta or noodles are egg-free.
Gluten-free? Use gluten-free pasta or noodles. Check to make sure your stock is gluten-free.
Storage notes: This soup will keep well for 3-4 days in the fridge. If you’re wanting to freeze it (i.e. batch cook it for a future rainy day), hold the pasta - it doesn’t freeze as well. Simple reheat and add it in dry to cook when you’re ready to enjoy.