Chicken Noodle Soup

A yummy chicken noodle soup.

2L Chicken Stock (I made my own similar to this recipe, using a chicken carcass and kept the carrots to use in my soup)
2 chicken breasts
2 portions rice vermicelli noodles
half a cup frozen peas and corn
1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley (I kept it mostly out of the kids' soups and just gave them a little bit and mixed the rest in for us)


Make your own stock. B

Pea & Ham Soup

Before stirring the meat in. I used yellow split peas. Next time I think I'll try to find green ones for the colour.

An amazing slow cooker recipe for pea and ham soup from a friend of ours. We made it over the weekend and it was well-received by all except Miss 2... she struggled with the texture I think but had 3 spoonfuls with the promise of yoghurt to follow! Despite that, I think it is a fantastic recipe. It can also be done in a pressure cooker or on the stove top but you'll have to work out your timings for them.

1 cup split peas (yellow or green), washed and soaked overnight

~8 cups water

1 (~700g) ham hock (a ham shank is better I think but harder to get)

1 chopped onion

Pepper & salt (usually the ham is salty enough but I added a tsp of chicken stock powder)

2 chopped carrots

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped

a chunk of pumpkin, chopped

1 sweet potato, peeled & chopped

You can add other soup vegetables like celery if you like.

Place eveything in the slow cooker (include the water that the peas were soaked in as part of the 8 cups and add more if you need to so that you cover everything in the slow cooker) and cook on low for about 7hrs or until the meat is falling off the bones.

After it is finished, remove the bones and as much of the meat as you can. Blend the soup (you don’t have to, but I prefer to. You can just give it a good stir and it will mostly break down anyway but still stay a bit chunky – depends how you like your soup). Chop the meat into small pieces and put back into soup. Stir and season with pepper again if you think it needs it.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I made a chicken noodle soup the other night based on this recipe. It was delicious but not devoured by the kids. The chilli could have been responsible, but also soup is a bit tricky for kids. The noodles were fun for them both though. :)
Here's my version.

~ 400g chicken breast, cooked and shredded. (I actually used chicken leftover from a stir-fry the night before and they were tenderloins, my favourite bit of the chicken)
125g rice vermicelli (Changs do a pack of 4 individual portions and I used 2)
1L chicken stock
1L water
2 carrots, diced
2 sticks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried chilli (up to 1tsp if you like it hot and don't have to worry about kids not liking it)
salt and pepper
3/4 cup fresh parsley (I didn't have any so didn't put it in, but I can imagine it would be better with it)

Heat 1 tbsp oil in large saucepan over medium heat and add onion and garlic. Stir for a couple of minutes until softened. Add carrots and celery and cook, stirring regularly until vegetables are slightly softened (6mins or so).
Add stock and water to pot and bring to boil. Season with salt, pepper, rosemary and chilli.
Add chicken and parsley. Simmer uncovered for 15-20min.
Add noodles and simmer for 5min.
Season with pepper as required and serve.

Curried Sweet Potato Soup

A great recipe from Julie's blog that we have tried a few times. The kids don't really like many orange vegetables currently but the adults loved it and it will be a good one for the future. I love how coconut cream makes things creamy without the dairy!

Curried Sweet Potato Soup
This recipe serves 6 people.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 brown onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 teaspoons curry powder
• 1.2 kg sweet potato, diced
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 1 large apple, peeled and grated
• coconut cream and crusty bread, to serve

Method:

• Heat oil in fry-pan. Cook onion and garlic 3-4 mins or un til tender. Add curry powder and stir for 1 min
• Add onion mix, sweet potato, chicken stock and apple to the slow cooker
• Stir to combine ingredients
• Cook on LOW for 6-7 hours or HIGH for 3-4 hours
• Turn slow cooker off and blend with stick blender until soup is puree and smooth
• Serve with 2 tablespoons coconut cream (per bowl) and bread.

(If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can simmer all ingredients covered for 30+ minutes, or until sweet potato is cooked, then blend and serve as above)

Chicken Stock

This is the chicken stock recipe I use. It is great especially if you need to avoid soy or all gluten (or just want to save money and have real ingredients). I did it with an uncooked chicken as per the recipe but now I just do it with the carcass after our roast chicken dinner. Much better use of the meat. I also sometimes leave out the leek and just put in extra onion.
Click here to go to the Taste.com.au recipe.