IT CAN BE EASY TO SOUP UP YOUR ATTACK ON ILLNESS
Got a stuffy nose, sore throat or a major cold? I’ve got the soup for you.
Everyone knows chicken soup is curative when it comes to being under the weather, but I created this soup to have some extra knockout power. Hopefully, it will help you get back to normal as much as it has helped me.
It is just shy of amazing how therapeutic a serving of hot broth can be. If you add some flavorful vegetables to it, all the better. Normally, I start most soups with a saute of onions, celery or peppers and some carrot slices, but my recent bout with a sore throat, cough and congestion called for drastic action.
I didn’t exactly feel like heading to the grocery store, and this was definitely a stay home kind of thing so I had to rely on what I had on hand. A large bulb of ginger gave me inspiration to create a soup similar to the Chinese Soup of Good Fortune. I needed some to get rid of this bug that had invaded my life. Heaven help me if my husband gets the stuff — he’ll revert to a somewhat helpless state requiring extreme care. I have to get well.
The vegetable drawer of our fridge had plenty of things to enlighten my chicken broth. (Chicken stock or broth is something you never want to be without.) Stock is like liquid gold for soups, stews and a variety of seasonal dishes. I know a notable Fort Worth, Texas, chef who even uses it as the liquid in his dough for peach empanadas, but that’s a story for peach season.
I had stock in the freezer just begging to be used. The boxed or canned lowsodium varieties work well. The point is stock is a versatile ingredient and worth “stocking” up on. This soup calls for some steeping and simmering. I sliced up that ginger into large slices about inch thick and dropped them into the heated stock to steep. I put the lid on and let all that potent ginger infuse itself into the stock. This added a comforting and lovely warming ambi- ence to the simple broth.
I could have stopped with that, but added some slices of little red and yellow peppers, sliced leek and carrot along. I turned the heat to the lowest setting and let the soup simmer under the lid. Meanwhile, I prepared some fronds of baby bok choy to add at the end. Once the carrots had softened after about a half-hour, I added the bok choy.
In minutes my soup was ready for the final touch: lemon zest and freshsqueezed juice.
Altogether, I had a soothing comforting soup in about an hour and enjoyed the aroma and anticipation the whole time. I could even appreciate it despite my stuffy nose, which went away for a while after a bowl of this steamy delicious soup. It’s a good thing I made plenty of it as this cold is trying to hang on.
The soup may not cure me, but it is fortification for the battle. Oh, I almost forgot, you don’t have to have a cold to enjoy this soup. This is a real warm- you-up soup for a cold winter day or a winter cold. With or without the sniffles, you can make your own version depending on what you have on hand. Chicken broth, either canned or your own, is essential and a must to have on hand throughout the winter. Here, I infused the broth with ginger before adding slices of leek, carrot and peppers. It is finished with bok choy and lemon zest and juice. It is a super sniffle-buster and proof that food can be medicine.