Читать книгу Home Cooking Made Easy - Lorraine Pascale - Страница 13

Duvet day chicken noodle soup

Supreme comfort eating and good for the soul, too! The essence of a very good soup is a really good stock, jam-packed full of flavour. Homemade is best, but a decent liquid chicken stock bought from the shop works well too.

Serves 4–6

1.5 litres good-quality chicken stock

1 bunch of spring onions, trimmed, sliced and separated into white bits and green bits

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

1 x 2cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into matchsticks

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

6 black peppercorns

Sea salt flakes

3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1 stick of celery, trimmed and sliced into thin matchsticks

1 carrot, peeled and sliced into matchsticks

150g quick-cook thin noodles

Small bunch of fresh basil leaves

Small bunch of fresh mint leaves

1 lime, cut in half

Put the chicken stock into a large pan with the spring onion whites, garlic, chilli, ginger, cinnamon, star anise, peppercorns and a good amount of salt. Bring to a simmer, then carefully slide the chicken breasts in and cover with a lid. Cook for 12 minutes, then throw in the celery and carrot and cook for a further 5 minutes. Taste the soup and season as necessary.

Remove the chicken, cinnamon stick and star anise from the soup with a slotted spoon and at the same time put the noodles into the broth and cook, uncovered, for as long as needed.

While the noodles are cooking, flake the chicken into bite-sized pieces with two forks. Just before the noodles are ready, put the chicken back into the broth to heat through and taste the soup again to check if you need any more seasoning.

Rip up half of the basil and mint leaves, stir through the soup with the spring onion greens and then divide the soup among 4–6 bowls. Scatter the remaining herbs over the top and squeeze a little lime juice over each one to finish.