Soup with Healing Powers

If you follow me on Twitter, then you know I’ve been pretty sick the last few days. I decided to mount a concerted “Get Samuel Well” campaign and started with chicken soup. Now, I’ve learned that soup-making is pretty straightforward. You start with some fat, heat it up, add some meat and maybe veggies, saute them, then add stock, herbs, and more vegetables and cook until done.

I started with quality ingredients. The organic, air-packed chicken tastes WAY better than frozen Tyson chicken breasts. I tried the organic vegetable broth, and thought it was a little salty. Normally I use my own homemade vegetable-based soup stock, but I was out and didn’t feel like making it. Using fresh whole garlic is a lot tastier than the pre-minced garlic out of a jar.

Chopped celery and onions for the vegetables. I’m wishing that I had a good knife at the dorm—my nice knives are at the EMS station where I normally cook.

Quality spices are a key. Many of my seasonings are from Penzeys, which has an outlet store about a mile from my parent’s home. Their products are really fresh and really cheap. For this soup, I used a number of spices and added them by intuition. The cumin, chili pepper, and cayenne pepper gave the soup a kick; mustard and paprika added a bit of sharpness; cinnamon, garlic, and nutmeg added a slightly eastern flavor to the mix. I ended up not using the sage.

Chopped chicken and garlic ready to be sautéed.

I heated up extra virgin olive oil and then tossed in my chicken and garlic to cook. Once the chicken was firm, I added the veggies and soup stock.

After adding stock, herbs & spices, and veggies, I simmered the whole arrangement for about twenty minutes. The celery was tender, the chicken flavorful, and the broth amazing.