"Get Well Soon" Chicken Soup

I'm stuck at home with a gastro-enteritis, or as they call it here, "stomach flu".

Unfortunately this is something I tend to get quite a bit (at least once every 2 years, so probably every time there's an epidemic!).

The silver lining is that by now I know how to deal with it! The formula is: lots of rest, lots of water, and only light and "safe" food. That means nothing with fat, too much fibre or spice, basically nothing that can irritate your digestive system further...

The best thing being a nice homemade chicken soup (alternating with some good natural yoghurt for breakfast or tea time).

The soup in the picture above has (for a big pot):

4 carrots 

2 leeks

5 small potatoes

about 600g chicken

about 2l water

2 stock cubes

thyme

The only trick here is to add the ingredients according to their cooking time: so first the carrots while you chop the rest of the veggies, then the potatoes, then a bit afterwards the leeks then the chicken.

Note: I'm going for the chicken being tender because it's cooked but not over cooked, as opposed to boiling the heck out of it then simmering for hours to get it tender again. If you want to do that, obviously put in the chicken first then the veggies a good bit later, otherwise they'll be very very limp...

Note 2: If you're worried about not being sure the chicken is cooked through, split the biggest chicken piece to confirm it is, then leave it on another couple of minutes anyway for good measure (if the fire is low and it's only a few minutes extra it won't toughen up too much).

So that was Chicken Soup #1, here's Chicken Soup #2:

This one has:

4 carrots 

2 leeks

100g baby corn

about 600g chicken

a few black Asian mushrooms (didn't see the type on the packaging)

300g rice vermicelli

about 1cm ginger root

about 2l water

2 stock cubes

a small splash of soy sauce

It was also yummy and comforting (and Kristof was happy I had to skip the chilli  peppers this time!).

Of course this all supposes you are not too sick to cook. If you are, maybe you can point your nearest loved one to this page so they can make it for you?:)

And if they need a little bribe, maybe you can promise to make them some muffins or a strawberry tart later in return...

Delicious Pumpkin Soup

This is by far my favourite soup... soft and creamy and comforting... 

It requires a bit of work peeling and cutting the pumpkin, but I think it's really worth it, and the rest is dead easy.

Ingredients

1 small pumpkin or 1/4 of a big pumpkin (jack 'o lantern type)

3 carrots

2 onions

200ml cream

2 stock cubes (or amount needed for 1l of water)

Preparation

1. Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds and dice it in rough chunks (you're already over the hard part!), add the carrots and onions.

2. Crumble the stock cubes on top of it, add 1 liter of water, and cook until the vegetables are softened (especially the carrots).

3. Add the cream and blend into a soup.

(Optional: decorate with herbes de Provence, seeds, Parmesan, or whatever takes your fancy!)

A cereal/seeds bread is nice to have with it...

Quick Thai soup

On Thursday I celebrated my birthday in a Thai restaurant with a few friends, and had very yummy food:)
The next day though, I wanted some more Thai prawn soup:D
I made some tonight with a few simple ingredients... It wasn't as fantastic as Baan Thai's one, but it still hit the spot.

So here's the recipe (makes about 5 bowls of soup):

1 red pepper
a bit of leek white (a spring onion would do nicely too)
2 big handfuls of fresh spinach
some rice noodles (I used a 2-3 people "wok-ready" pack, I'm guessing about 250g)
about 300g prawns (I used pre-cooked prawn tails)
1 or 2 chillies
my Asian food "usual suspects" (oyster sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil and lime juice)

1. Slice the red pepper and the leek as finely as possible and sauté in a pan.
2. Boil about 5 bowls of water (yes I actually poured bowls of water in the pan to get a better control on the final quantity - I always make too much food!), add the sauces and chillies to taste.
3. Add the fresh spinach, let it wilt (it should only take about a minute), then add all the rest to the pot.
You're done!

Now that was easy:)
The verdict: I had to add a bit more soy sauce and lime juice to mine, and thought it was pretty mild, but the BF found it quite spicy! (He's still not used to spicy food).

Chicken noodle soup

I made noodle soup for scratch:) I started with a recipe my lil' sis gave for "cold-fighting Asian soup" (since the BF has a cold/flu thing at the moment, I thought I'd try it...).

So the recipe goes like this: "boil some water with some lemon, ginger and miso soup, add small pieces of chicken and carrots, and a bit of chilli to clear up the nose!" Sounded yummy and, well, useful!

Of course I can never leave a recipe alone, so I added a few bits and bobs from the fridge and pantry...

My version used:
about 2L water
1 carrot
half a red bell pepper
a quarter fennel
2 small shallots
2 red chillies
4 packs dried miso soup (48g)
1 pack chicken soup base + flavouring oil (that came with the noodles)
a generous helping of ginger
3 packs of noodles (individual portions)
some oyster sauce
some soy sauce
about 300g chicken, diced into small pieces
4 eggs
lots of lime juice
a dash of Chinese 5 spices
some fish sauce
some toasted sesame oil

Yes I know that's a lot of bits and bobs but I tend to be enthusiastic about making food I like!

So basically I just diced the veggies, put them in boiling water, added the soup bases, spices, and noodles... Then the chicken, more spices and the eggs at the end.
Little tip for the eggs: beat them and spread them around the soup. I just cracked them above the pot and then I had to try fish around for them to break them into smaller pieces and make sure the yolk was cooked :S

So how did it taste? Really good, like proper Asian soup!

So I served some to the BF with a spoon and chopsticks, and the first thing he did was change the chopsticks for a knife and fork, and CUT THE NOODLES IN THE SOUP!!! *sigh*

Ah well, at least I made plenty so I can freeze some for later (hopefully that freezes well).

Very Simple Courgette Soup

I made this on Friday night, it's comfort food but healthy... and easy to make too!

You will need:
- 2 courgettes
- 1 broccoli
- 1 big onion
- 75 cl water
- a stock cube

Preparation:
1. Boil the water and dissolve the stock cube.
2. Wash, peel and dice the courgettes (big chunks are ok but they should be roughly the same size).
Add them to the boiling water.
3. Peel and cut the onion (wet it and the knife regularly to avoid those pesky onion tears!).
Add it to the boiling water.
4. Wash the broccoli and cut the florets.
Add them to the water and discard the rest.
5. Let everything cook for 5-10 min.
6. Blitz the veg and water in a blender (I have a tiny blender so I did it in batches).
Taste, season and serve!!!

Told you it was easy;)