Greetings! I do apologise for the distinct gap in between this post at the last post I presented. Goodness, it's been a month! I've done a bit of traveling back to ye-olde-hometown (*waves to the new people*), seen some friends, and the most important thing is that I've been cooking up a storm! If I don't have more than 4 new recipes to share - well, you can dress me up in a tutu and call me Lola!!
No, seriously. Don't do that. I really do have at least four brand new recipes to share! Starting off with this one today, I'm sure you'll love them all!
Who doesn't love home made soup? Especially as we're (down here) heading into Autumn, and before you know it, we'll be smack into frosty nights, and wet drizzly days. Oh, hang on - we've already got those! (Boy, did we have a bluster of a storm last week! Why, an entire window blew out in the apartment block facing us, and wasn't that a huge noise! Just about had a heart attack.) This soup recipe I have adapted from that wonder of wonders, one of my favourite cooks, Nigella Lawson, and her book Feast. She cooks up a great Chicken Noodle Soup, which we just love. It's so quick and easy to make, and you can throw it together with things that you'll generally find in your fridge & freezer. What makes mine different from Nigella's, is that I've substituted a few yummy chicken meatballs, instead of just plain chicken breast!
Today, I'll give you Nigella's recipe, and then show you how I've adapted it to get to Chicken Meatball Noodle Soup!
See? Doesn't that look great? Come on in and have a looksee at the recipe :)
Nigella Lawson's Chicken Noodle Soup
500ml Chicken Stock
1 tblsp Soy Sauce
1 Chicken Breast
30gm Baby Corn
50gm Sugar-Snap Peas
50gm Fine Beans
250gm Udon Noodles
(a small sliced chili, if the soup is just for grownups, if you want a bit of heat in there)
Bring the chicken stock to a simmer. Slice the chicken breast into pieces (think thin inch-long pieces). Place soy sauce in a skillet and heat. Poach the chicken breast in the soy sauce. Place vegetables in the stock to blanch, (add the chili) then place the contents of the skillet (both chicken and soy sauce) in the broth, along with the udon noodles. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, until vegetables are cooked. Serves 2.
VERY EASY. Isn't it awesome? Yum yum yum. This soup is so good as well. Let's move on to my recipe.
750ml Chicken Stock
1 small tin of Corn Kernels (approx 125gm)
75-100gm Green Beans (your preference)
1-2 tblsp Soy Sauce
220gm pouch Udon Noodles
+ Meatballs!
250gm Chicken Mince
1 small Onion, diced
1 tsp Cumin
1 tblsp Mixed Herbs
(+ 1 thinly sliced chili, if you like!)
1) Get the meatballs going.
Place all the makings for the meatballs in a bowl. I finely diced the onions, then added a good shake of cumin (I reckon it was about 1 tsp) & a really good shake of mixed herbs (hence the '1 tblsp'). Get your (nice clean) hands in there and squish it around. Pinch off small amounts (between 1-2 tsp of mixture) and roll into balls.
Heat a skillet on the stove, and put a dash of olive oil into it.
Drop the meatballs as you form them, into the skillet, and brown them all. By the time that they look like this, it's time for the soy sauce. It should only take around 5 - 10 minutes to cook them. Whilst they're cooking, let's do the rest of the soup.
Place the chicken broth into a nice big pot on the stove (not huge, unless you're doubling the recipe for 4 people, or tripling it for 6 or something... I would say a 8-cup pot?) and bring the stock to a boil. This should happen whilst the meatballs are cooking. You can even put the stock on to boil before making the meatballs! You just need to get it going.
Slice up the beans. I like to parboil them a big, to get them cooking before I put them in the pot. I put mine in the microwave for about 5 minutes.
By this point, your meatballs are probably feeling pretty cooked through.
Pour in the soy sauce. I like to use a bit more than a tablespoon, but this is something that you have to figure out for yourself. Those with low-sodium diets, use a low-sodium (salt-reduced) soy sauce. Perhaps just a tablespoon for you. For those who are used to more salt in your diets, more towards 2 tablespoons. For your first time, I would suggest 1 tablespoon, and add more if you think it needs it. It's a personal taste thing. Let the soy sauce bubble up around the meatballs for a minute or two, allowing them to absorb
the sauce a bit. Meanwhile, add things to the soup :)
Add both the udon noodles (I use a pouch which just require heating through for cooking - very convenient), and the corn. (If you have baby corn readily available, use that if you'd prefer :) Same goes for the beans, if you want to use sugar snap peas, or snow peas, go right ahead. Both of those probably don't need parboiling, for example, and could just go straight in.)
Time to slide the contents of the skillet into the soup. Be careful - it can splash everywhere!
Drain off your beans, and slide them into the soup as well, which should be happily simmering away.
Everything you need should be in your soup now. Let's have a look at the colour.
Doesn't it look great? It's got a lovely nut brown colour, from the soy sauce that you added to the pan with the meatballs, mixing with the chicken stock.
This soup doesn't need seasoning, as it's got the salty soy sauce in there. As Nigella's recipe is originally in the section for Kids, she notes that you can add a thinly sliced chili to the soup, if it's just for adults. I hardly ever do this (I think it's more a case of forgetting than anything else), but if you wanted to, you could pop it in when the stock is coming to a simmer, or with the vegetables.
From go to woe, from getting home to sitting down to eat, this soup takes about 15-20 minutes. It is just so quick and easy and SO satisfying. I just love it. It's a favourite in our home during the cooler times of the year, and I might just have to make it for dinner tonight!
I hope you enjoy it :)
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