October 4, 2011

(Chicken) Noodle Soup

Soup, Vegetables 5 Comments

I hate getting sick. Stuffy head and achy muscles and sore throat. No fun.

Less fun two weeks after seeing Contagion. No joke. Have you seen that movie? Scary.

But as much as being sick makes me not want to cook, I crave soup like crazy when I have a cold.

And there’s nothing quite like homemade chicken noodle soup.

Sans chicken.

I don’t want to mislead you. This soup has lots of chicken stock, yes, but no chicken meat. Why? Because I don’t like it in there. I don’t know why. Never have. My mom used to strain chicken noodle soup so that the little pinkish chicken pieces got caught in the strainer and I was left with warm, savory broth. Am I the only one?

So I’ve avoided getting chicken noodle soup at restaurants for years and picked around the meat in cans of it from the store. I actually don’t know what took me so long to come around to making it myself to be in complete control of its ingredients.

I’m glad I did. Because this. Oh, this. A soup of my dreams. Full of vegetables I like, noodles in whatever shape I want, and no. pinkish. chicken.

I won’t judge you if you do like chicken in your chicken noodle soup. Add it in there if you wish!

Here’s to hoping that next time I make this, I won’t have the plague.

(Chicken) Noodle Soup
Adapted from All Recipes

Makes about 8 one-cup servings, 4-5 servings if you serve larger portions

A Noodle Note: Every time, and I mean EVERY time, I make soup I always underestimate how swollen the noodles will become. I made this soup with two cups of cut spaghetti, which was fairly perfect for immediate consumption. As leftovers, however, there was almost no broth left. I think next time I will cut down to one cup, and I would encourage you to do the same if you like a soupy soup.

3 T butter
1 c onion
1 1/2 c celery
5 cloves garlic
1 c carrots
1 c peas
8 c chicken stock
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 T dried parsley
1 bay leaf
1-2 c cut spaghetti (or your favorite tiny pasta)

Dice onion & chop up celery, garlic, and carrots. In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onions and celery and sauté until onions soften. Add garlic, carrots, peas, chicken stock, marjoram, pepper, parsley, and bay leaf. Turn heat to high and cover. Once soup comes to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add cut spaghetti and simmer for 7-8 more minutes or until pasta is cooked through.

Remove from heat and let soup sit for 4-5 minutes so you don’t burn your mouth off.

Enjoy!