Sonja’s Chicken Soup In A Flash

October 15, 2009

I LOVE soup. It is my favorite food after cherries. This recipe is a favorite. The simplicity is so pleasant and undemanding. It just feels good.

My sister is a chef and a master chocolatier. Can you believe that? I can barely believe it myself (the chocolate part, I mean). Her chocolates make Godiva look like the Estee Lauder of the chocolate world – happy to receive any amount of it, but it’s still mass-market product. Sonja’s chocolates make Godiva look a bit ordinary. Seriously. She no longer has time to create those truly unique and inspired chocolates, though will hopefully do so again.

Meet Sonja.

Sonja.

Meet the reason (or 3 of the many) that she no longer makes chocolates.

Sonja's family.

Sonja sends us this recipe.

This is a really good and easy (read fast) recipe for chicken soup. Here goes:

Sonja’s Chicken Soup In A Flash

Ingredients

2 litres of Campbell’s Chicken Stock, low sodium
4 breasts of chicken
1-2 cans of beans ( I like the 5 bean combo which adds variety and color)
1 red pepper, finely diced
1 can corn (or frozen)
spinach (I buy the prewashed organic variety)
2 bay leaves
2 kafir lime leaves (optional)
6-8 cloves garlic
cooked macaroni kept on the side

Method

Heat the oven to 375. Place chicken breasts in a roasting pan, season with salt and pepper, add a dash of olive oil if you like, place in oven. I like to roast my garlic with the chicken. It will cook faster than the chicken, so keep an eye on it. The chicken should be cooked in 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and chop both the chicken and garlic into small pieces.

While the chicken is cooking, bring the stock to a boil, add the bay leaves and kafir lime leaves. Add the washed beans and corn and any other firm veg you may have chosen.

Add the diced, cooked chicken and garlic.

Simmer together for 5 minutes. Add the red pepper at the last minute.

Prepare the bowls: place a few leaves of spinach in the bottom of each bowl. Ladle the soup on top of it. People are in charge of their own macaroni. My kids love it, I don’t.

Sonja's Chicken Soup.

This is a really flexible recipe; you can add any veg you want but remember that certain ones really don’t need to be cooked long or they will turn to mush. You can add as much or as little stock as you please and same with the beans. There are no rules here!

This should take 15-20 minutes max, and you can make large quantities since it reheats well. I would not put the spinach in the main pot, though or it will become stringy and dark.

Kafir lime leaves can be had in Asian food stores and they freeze well. They add a special flavor that you may associate with Thai cooking. It is hard to describe but very pleasant. It is not an overpowering flavor (unless you go crazy and add 12 leaves). (Sonja tells me that you could add a little lime zest if you don’t have kafir lime leaves).

My kids are notoriously finicky and even they can’t find anything wrong with this recipe.

Happy trails,

Sonja

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Great Hair, Outside The Box

Comments

4 Responses to “Sonja’s Chicken Soup In A Flash”

sonja on October 16th, 2009 12:15 am

The pottery bowl, by the way is by Jessica Hutchinson from Oyster Bed Bridge in Prince Edward Island. She does really beautiful work.
Christal Antaya on October 20th, 2009 2:05 pm

Does anyone have a address and phone number for Jessica Hutchinson Pottery I love it!!
sonja on October 20th, 2009 6:27 pm

Go to this link to see info on the pottery.

http://www.peistudiotour.com/peistudiotour.php?pageNum_members=3&totalRows_members=67&page=members

The website is:

http://www.peistudiotour.com
gina on October 21st, 2009 8:47 pm

Now I have to make soup! More soup…yummy soup! And that bowl is tres nice.
Wonder if Jessica would ship?
Thanks Sonja