Today's Daily Soup Special

Everybody's currently working from home, and whew, don't you really work so much harder at home!  The day goes so fast, especially when you're planning and preparing the next meal and cleaning up from the last and there won't be any going out to eat if you didn't get to it.

We're trying to eat so healthfully, too, to keep immune systems strong!

So Today's Daily Soup Special is really how to make leftovers new again, without saying "leftovers" to anyone.

This is the second iteration of homemade chicken soup, (my chicken soup answers to "Liquid Gold").
The soup was originally rather strongly flavored from all the immune-boosting spices I included, so this was the perfect mod to make today's desk lunch for the folks working from home offices in our little home.

Ingredients:
leftover Liquid Gold chicken soup*
leftover egg noodles stored in the leftover chicken soup
leftover cooked broccoli florets  (optional) (these had been frozen, cooked in bag and not served last night for  dinner, since we ended up having sandwiches and baked potatoes and there wasn't room on the plate or menu for more broccoli, hence refrigerated overnight)
leftover crisply overdone thin boneless pork chops (or use crisply cooked bacon) (optional)
leftover blanched Italian cut green beans (optional)
juice from half a lemon
dollop of sour cream
coarse salt, (optional)
black pepper
dash of paprika as garnish (optional)

Heat it all up, add the lemon and sour cream last, mix in, serve.


Liquid Gold Chicken Soup:  This is of course totally health food; chicken soup is often affectionately called, "Jewish penicillin", and this one even includes garlic, "Russian penicillin".

1. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer, one whole chicken, OR chicken necks and backs, quartered chicken pieces with bone in, etc.
2.  As the foam rises and floats on the surface, skim-skim-skim it off with a spoon, discard.  (I collect it all in a medium size bowl and then discard.)  Skimming makes the end product clearer, but you can skip this step and remove the fat from the surface after you chill it, if you can't skim.  It isn't actually that bad, you only have to skim a few times.
3.  After all the skimming, you can add:
carrot
celery (leaves; also stalk, celery seed)
onions
garlic
ginger
bay leaf
ground cardamom, or float the whole seed
a clove or two
black pepper
dash of turmeric
your choices:  marjoram, basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage...
a star anise (this is optional and is a slightly different, peculiar flavor and smell of licorice, though the soup will still be mostly chicken-y; I added it because star anise is reputed to be a source ingredient for Tamiflu! and why not, I will try any home remedy and old wives' tale to make us strong!  It is also an ingredient in Chinese 5 Spice and also reportedly in  some Vietnamese soups...I have learned how to dare combining some warm, "sweet" spices with the herbs or savory, spicy spices since trying to cook some Middle Eastern/African dishes for my son's tastes.)
salt* (optional)
lemon juice at end before serving (optional)
lemon/orange zest (optional)

When simmered long enough to turn "liquid gold" and the meat falls off the chicken bone, remove the chicken and the vegetables, and serve as broth, or add what you like to serve as "chicken soup", e.g., egg noodles, pasta noodles, dumplings, rice, mixed vegetables...

*Most soups benefit from the taste of salt, and quite a bit of salt, but I don't use it at all in soup for my own health, my family adds it at the table if they like; I find this flavorful enough that it doesn't even need it.

To your health!