Easy Chicken Soup Recipe

It’s that time of year, when the weather turns colder, the leaves change color and warm soup becomes a desirable thing.

Basic Ingredients

2-4 lbs of chicken thighs
Coconut Oil
2-3 inches of fresh ginger root (pealed and chopped, if you prefer to remove the ginger at the end cut the pieces larger for ease of removal)
5-10 garlic cloves (pealed and chopped)
8-9 cups of water
1-2 tsp peppercorns
1-2 bay leaves

Optional Ingredients
1 medium onion (pealed and chopped)
sliced carrots
sliced celery
celery seeds (1/4 -1/2 tsp)
rice or noodles (I cook separately and add to bowl when serving)

looking down in to pot of chicken soup
Soup!

Cooking

  1. Using a large pot or dutch oven saute ginger, garlic, and onions(optional) in coconut oil.
  2. Add chicken thighs skin side down
  3. Add 8-10 cups of water to pot, along with bay leaves, celery seeds, and peppercorns
  4. Boil for 30-60 minutes until chicken is completely cooked. Since you are boiling, you don’t need to worry about over cooking the chicken.
  5. Remove chicken. Discard the skin and bones. Shred the meat and add it back to pot.
  6. Remove ginger if you don’t want to eat large pieces of it.
  7. Add carrots, celery, and salt to taste.

 

Serving

Either serve the soup as is, or add some cooked rice or noodles to the bowl and ladle the soup over them.  I prefer to add rice/noodles this way to avoid the rice/noodles becoming mush. This way every one gets the right noodle to soup ratio.

This recipe is very adaptable both in its initial cooking and when reheating to have a bowl.

Bok Choy!

Boy Choy growingLast Sunday at the Tyngsboro Farmers Market at least two people stopped by our tent and while chatting about Neurostructural care, browsed through our copy of World’s Healthiest Foods

Both of them learned about bok choy and proceeded to head over to Kirk Farm’s tent to purchase some for themselves. Bok choy is a nutrient rich vegetable, an excellent source of Vitamin K, C, A, Potassium, Folate, Vitamin B6, Calcium, and Manganese.  Along with those nutrients bok choy has a wide range of antioxidants which means that bok choy is considered to be an anti-inflammatory food.  More from the book can be found here.

Boy choy is a great addition to stir fries and served with minimal preparation sauteed.  To prepare bok choy, rinse in cold water just prior to cutting.  After cutting, let sit for at least 5 minutes, then cook.  Avoid over cooking.

A few recipes:

Steamy Kitchens Simple Bok Choy Stir Fry

http://steamykitchen.com/2112-bok-choy-stir-fry-recipe.html

Bacon-y bok choy

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/76346/bacon-y-bok-choy/