Chicken soup is a very special soup for me. I was a picky eater as a child but my mom’s chicken soup got my attention almost every time 🙂

I still crave it from time to time and sometimes even if I don’t have all the necessary ingredients,  I can still figure out a way to make a tasty  alternative 🙂

Ingredients fro about a 5 L pot:

• 1 chicken preferably organic ( I used a kosher chicken this time )
• 3,5 – 4 liters of cold water
• 3-4 carrots
• 1 large parsnip
• 1 yellow onion, cut in half
• celery root ( 1/4 from a root )
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• red pepper ( 1/2 of a large one )
• 2 bay leaves
• salt to taste
• 1 pinch of turmeric for a bright yellow color

Cut the chicken in pieces, wash them well and bring the chicken to a boil in about 3,5-4 liter of cold water. Bring it to a boil over a medium heat, skimming off the scum with a ladle when needed.

When the stock is clear of scum add the carrots, onion, celery root, parsnip, garlic, red pepper and the bay leaves. Bring back to a boil. Skim again if needed. Turn the heat down to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for about two hours, skimming regularly.

Almost at the end you could start adding the salt little at a time, until you get the right seasoning.

For the traditional chicken soup I will strain the stock and add some cooked hair pasta noddle to it and fresh herbs and just serve it hot with fresh back pepper on top.

As I mentioned above, sometimes I don’t have the proper ingredients for a chicken soup, but this won’t stop me to create a new version. This time I had a beautiful cauliflower head handy so I created a chicken – cauliflower soup.

 

I cooked this late at night and I had to refrigerate it so I missed the serving pictures the next day. 😦

What I did : I removed the chicken pieces. I removed some meat from the chicken legs and and put it back to the soup,  added some fresh chopped dill and just enjoyed it 🙂

Bon Appetite