Chicken Soup

Chicken soup is a traditional Jewish soup, very often served on Sabbath evenings, but any time a nourishing or restorative food is required. If you are feeling a bit tired, a little below par, have a cold or flu, then chicken soup is invariably the solution.

Ingredients are as follows, and as always you will find the quantities that suit you best:

Cleaned chicken wing, or giblet, or simply a carcass left over from a previous meal

1 sliced medium sized onion

2/3 chopped carrots

1/2 chopped leaks

Celery leaves

Salt and pepper to suit

Method, couldn't be simpler:

Place the chicken well covered in a saucepan with cold water, add salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Add the vegetables and allow to simmer for an hour or so, skimming the white residue off the surface of the soup every now and then, to ensure the soup remains clear.

Remove the chicken from the pan, leaving in the soup pieces of the cooked meat if preferred, and allow to simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste if necessary and simmer until the vegetables are fully cooked.

Traditionally people will also have 'lockshen' with the soup, usually vermicelli. This is not eaten like spaghetti in volume, so select less to cook, but cook in the same way. When the 'lockshen' is ready, sieve to remove the water and serve small amounts in soup plates. Add the wonderful and richly flavoured chicken soup and enjoy. Seconds are always permitted and always available!