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| Chicken and Vegetable Soup. This chicken and vegetable soup with butter beans is a wonderful Sunday lunch or weeknight dinner. This soup can be made ahead of time, makes economical use of vegetable scraps and peelings before composting, keeps well in the fridge, and works with whatever size chicken breast or winter vegetables you've got on hand. Obviously, the more people you wish to serve, the larger the chicken breast and the more vegetables you'll need to use! |
For 6 servings:
Ingredients
Stock broth
250-500 gm chicken breast - skin on or off
1-2 cups of the week's saved vegetable peelings, ends and scraps (peelings of no more than one potato to avoid stock tasting 'earthy')
2-3 bay leaves
Water
Soup
Brown onion, peeled and finely chopped
1-2 celery stalks, ends off and thinly chopped (use tops and ends in the vegetable stock)
1 leek, white shank part, washed and finely sliced (use rinsed green tops and bottom in the vegetable stock
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped or crushed
1 tablespoon duck fat or pork lard (adds flavor but use a vegetable oil if that's what you have in the pantry)
1 425gm tin cheapest butter beans including brine
1-2 carrots, peeled and chopped into small pieces (use ends and peelings in the vegetable stock)
Florets of broccoli and cauliflower broken into very small pieces
Fenugreek seeds (6/8/12 seeds to taste)
1 tsp instant chicken stock powder (more or less, to taste)
Salt and pepper
Method
Vegetable stock
Place chicken breast into a large heavy stock pot. Add vegetable scraps, together with the bay leaves. Add cold water sufficient to cover the chicken and vegetable scraps. Bring to the boil then turn down to simmer on low for around 20-30 minutes. The objective is to extract goodness out of the chicken and the vegetable scraps for your soup base, not boil and reduce them to oblivion.
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Remove the chicken and place on chopping board. Discard any skin. Strain stock liquid into a separate jug. reserve vegetable scraps into a separate bowl.
Using 2 forks, hold the chicken breast still with one fork and shred/scrape the chicken meat with the second fork into thin strips.
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| Shredding a chicken breast |
Making the Soup
Heat pot to medium-high. Add lard and melt. Add the chopped onion, garlic, celery and leek frying for a few minutes until lightly browned and clear. Remove pot from heat while you prepare the next steps.
Add shredded chicken, strained vegetable stock, chopped vegetables, tinned butter beans with their brine, instant chicken stock, and a few fenugreek seeds into the pot (try 6-8 first and taste test before adding more).
Take approximately 3/4 - 1 cup of the cooked vegetable stock peelings and put them into a kitchen blender. Pulverize until smooth and add to the soup pot.
Simmer the soup on very low for around 1/2 - 3/4 hour.
Season with ground salt and ground pepper and serve with buttered crusty bread or toast.
Variations:
An alternative to butter beans is one or two waxy white potatoes in small cubes (to hold their shape) peeled or unpeeled, or peeled small cubes of turnip or swede.