CHICKEN SOUP

Chicken soup; good for the soul and for those hard-to-shake winter sniffles.  Its been such a windy week that soup was a must this Sunday night. Another reason for a nutritious soup; I attended an amazing hens party last night which included the works: great company, a stripper and mountains of junk food and alcohol. I woke up feeling hungover from chocolate, cheese and a delectable coconut, raspberry and lime cake. So a vegetable packed soup was greatly needed for dinner tonight. As this soup serves 4-6, myself and my husband can eat this for the next days and will hopefully stay away from those nasty winter flus that are going around. If you want to make this soup vegetarian, skip the poaching step and instead add all the ingredients to the saucepan including a 400g tin of chickpeas and a 400g tin of lentils, rinsed and drained. Cook for the same amount of time as you do the vegetables.

INGREDIENTS

• 500g free-range chicken breast, fat removed 
• 1/2 medium red chilli, finely chopped or 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ground black pepper
• 4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme and/or parsley 
• 3 cups vegetable or chicken salt-reduced stock 
• 2 medium carrots, cut into even cubes
• 2 medium zucchini, cut into even cubes 
• 300g pumpkin, cut into even cubes
• 1/2 cup of fresh parsley, roughly chopped

COOKING 

1. Place the chicken breasts, chilli, garlic, pepper, thyme and/or parsley, stock and 7 cups of water in a large deep saucepan and cover well with water. Bring to the boil, covered, then simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the stove and let the saucepan stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Remove the poached chicken from the pan and leave to cool for a few minutes before 'shredding' the chicken (I do this with 2 forks and pull in separate directions, as you would when 'pulling' pork). 

2. Whilst the chicken is poaching cut up all the vegetables. Once the chicken has been removed from the saucepan add the carrot, zucchini and pumpkin to the poaching liquid and bring to the boil. Lower to a medium simmer and cook, covered, for 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender but not mushy. Remove from heat and remove the sprigs of thyme and/or parsley. Stir the fresh 1/2 cup of parsley into the soup and sprinkle some extra ground black pepper, if desired. Serve warm. 

Serves / 4-6 

Total Preparation time / 5 minutes

Total Cooking time / approx. 40 minutes 

x Emily