Soup also is easy to digest, seeing as all the constituent parts have already been broken down. For dieters, it makes you feel fuller for longer. This is probably why I can't order soup as a starter. It fills me up straight away and I can't face into a main course afterwards.
For me, soup is the perfect lunch food. Or indeed, supper. It is also food that can easily be put past the lips of a fussy eater. I remember in the worst days of Daniel's food rejection phase (otherwise known as Mum control) I could secret dozens of vegetables into a serving of soup, and so long as the end result was orange, it could be called pumpkin soup. Pumpkin soup was my secret password to get Daniel to eat. All parents have one of those!
For all you parents who are actively encouraging your kids to join in the cooking process, there are plenty of jobs you can involve the kids in, where soup comes into it. Peeling veg, is a good one, although you should do a demonstration of how to hold a peeler, and some peelers are safer than others. For really little ones, chopping and mixing herbs is another good one, you can give them a regular dinner knife and a big bunch of parsley to chop, a sprig of thyme to pick the leaves off, a bowl and a spoon to stir it all up. Then of course there is the tossing in of the ingredients into a big pot, with a long wooden spoon to stir. Get a wizards hat and it becomes a game!
The four soup recipes that I used in the cookery class this week and that my family have been eating all week are:
Roasted butternut squash and parsnip
Chicken noodle soup
Pea and bacon soup
Potato and leek soup
All of these recipes were accepted by the participating students, all said they liked them, although the potato and leek was the least popular, which is also the case in my house.
You can adapt these to suit the veg you have available, although some veg are more suitable for soup than others. You really need to experiment a little.
Firstly
Chicken noodle soup
I use a large stock pot for this, or really whatever pot you boil your ham in at christmas will do! The bigger the pot, the more soup you get, and also the larger the quantities of veg and meat to water the stronger the flavour.
Into the pot, put
3 peeled whole carrots
3-4 inner stalk of celery (the ones with the leaves are perfect)
2 large or 3 small onions, peeled and cut in half
1 large bunch of parsley (half of those packets you buy is good)
3 sprigs of thyme
1 T sea salt
1 T pepper corns or ground black pepper
1 whole free range chicken or 6-7 portions of chicken (uncooked)
Top the pot up with cold water and bring to the boil. Cook on a low boil or fast simmer for 1 hour for portions or 2 hours for a whole chicken.
Don't worry at all if you want to leave it longer, it will just reduce a little but the flavour will become more concentrated. Taste at this stage, and you can add more seasoning if you wish or even water it As it is cooking, foam will rise to the surface, which you can skim away as it cooks.
At the end you can skim off the oily pools on the surface also.
Strain out the meat and veg through a sieve into a clean saucepan or into a freezer container.
Strip the meat from the cooked chicken and dice it if you wish and add it back in.
When you are serving the soup, bring it back to the boil and add some dried egg noodles for 3-4 minutes allowing them to cook in the soup.
And voila, you have chicken noodles soup.
You can add the veg back in pieces if you want, but really the goodness from them is in the soup so if kids eat it without them in it, then leave it as it is.
This is homemade chicken stock too, so you can freeze it and use it casseroles. (without the pieces of chicken in it)
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