Serves: 4 

Prep time: 10 mins 

Cook time: 40 mins 

In the colder months of cold & flu season when you want to boost the whole family’s immunity, nothing beats a good homemade chicken soup. I’m talking the kind you make from scratch with a whole chook and loads of veggies cooked low and slow, then laced with lemon and fresh herbs. The resulting chicken broth is so wonderfully nourishing and grounding and packed with immune-boosting and healing nutrients, in easy to digest forms.

 

This recipe can be thrown together in under an hour using some fridge and pantry staples like bone broth concentrate, dried herbs and cooked chicken, with the same nourishment and comfort as if it had been simmering away all day on the stove top.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp ghee or olive oil
• 5L chicken broth
• 500g cooked chicken, diced/shredded
• 1 potato, diced (peeled if not organic)
• 1 zucchini, grated
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 can (400g) cannellini beans *BPA-free
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 ear of corn, kernels
• 3/4 cup soup pasta
• 1 frozen spinach cube
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
• Sea salt & fresh black pepper, to taste
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Optional extra: 2 Tbsp pesto mixed with 2 Tbsp olive oil, for drizzling on top

Instructions:

1. To a large pot, heat ghee over medium heat and sauté the onion and garlic until the onions they’re translucent.
2. Add potato, carrot, zucchini and corn and stir.
3. Add broth and herbs and simmer for 30-minutes, or until the harder vegetables like potatoes are cooked.
4. While the soup in simmering away, cook the pasta in a separate pot of boiling water, according to the instructions.
5. To the soup, add cooked chicken, spinach and lemon juice and cooked for a further 5-10 minutes.
6. Divide pasta between your bowls and pour over chicken soup.
7. Serve with a dollop of pesto and buttered crusty sourdough bread.

Recipe supplied by paediatric & childhood nutritionist (and resident Mumsie nutrition expert), Lucy Stewart of Lucy Stewart Nutrition: www.lucystewartnutrition.com