Flu fighting chicken soup

Chicken soup lives up to all its flu fighting, soul healing hype….especially when it’s made with real stock from your kitchen. Western medicine is even coming to the (slow) conclusion that chicken soup is better than most over the counter cold and flu medications. How?  Studies have shown that chicken soup inhibits the movement of neutrophils, the most common type of white blood cell that defends against infection. The theory is that by inhibiting the migration of these infection-fighting cells in the body, chicken soup essentially helps reduce upper respiratory cold symptoms.

For those days when it says it’s Spring but feels like Winter or when you feel like you’ve been hit by a plank in the side of the head…you need:

For the stock:

1 roast chicken carcass (I love making stock from my roast chicken carcasses. Great flavour, complete use of the bird.)

Onion, celery, carrots – seriously, whatever veggies you have sitting around

Parsley, rosemary, lemon thyme, sea salt & pepper

Whack some water over the bird, veggies and herbs. Boil & then let simmer away for about an hour, skim any of the yucky stuff off the top, strain and you have the base for chicken soup!

For the soup:

Any meat from the left over chicken

Some greens like kale, silver beet or spinach chopped pretty finely

Carrot chopped

Garlic, ginger & onion

Celery, chopped

Soba noodles if you want a noodle soup treat

Slow fry the onion, garlic and ginger, add celery and carrots for about a minute, then add the stock & chook. I like to simmer for about 30 minutes before adding the noodles and greens.

Serve and smile. This is also a really good gift for any friends or family who are feeling sick. You won’t believe how much they appreciate this simple gesture!