Sixties Soup

The Date: 3 October 2011

The Occasion: A cold Monday night just calls for soup.

The Recipe: From this book, full of wonderful recipes, which my mom got me for Christmas last year. Peter renamed this soup; its original name was Flower Garden Soup, which is kind of creative but suggests that you could be munching bits of mulch and azalea leaves. Peter likes "Sixties Soup" because the colorful vegetables - if you can manage to get them in the shape of flowers - are reminiscent of a psychedelic era.

How it Went:
This was yet another recipe that called for already-cooked chicken. This is, as I've said, annoying because an ingredients list should be raw materials only. Fortunately, this recipe allows enough downtime time to cook the chicken, the procedure for which I've outlined below.

Your Turn:

See? Squares.

Make flowers out of two medium-small zucchinis (one green and one yellow) and a few full-size carrots. To do this, use a zest stripper, or a knife, to cut out little notches around the edge of the vegetables, then chop them into slices on a large cutting board. (Don't use a regular vegetable peeler or you will end up with just space for four swipes of the peeler and when you chop the veggies you'll have squares instead of flowers. Perhaps that would be Eighties Soup or something.) If you already have baby carrots in the fridge like I usually do, by all means, use these instead. Just quarter them to make strips. Chop up an onion and four stalks of celery too.

Set the zucchini aside, then toss the rest of the vegetables into a large soup pot. Add about eight cups of chicken or vegetable broth, either canned, boxed, or made from pouring boiling water over bouillon. Then be generous with spices. Add basil, oregano, onion salt, garlic powder, black pepper, chicken seasoning, and any other spices you think might be good.

Turn on the stove, and let this come to a boil. Once it boils, turn the heat down, cover it, and set a timer for 20 minutes.

Now, take two chicken breasts out of the fridge, chop them on your cutting board into little cubes, and fry them up in some olive oil in a medium skillet with some basil and garlic powder. This will not take the whole time that the soup is coming to a boil and then boiling, so once the chicken is cooked, set it aside with the zucchini, and wash up all the dishes you've used so far. Or start your blog post. Or both.

When the timer goes off, taste a spoonful of the soup. Add more spices if it's not flavorful enough. Then add the chicken and zucchini (optional: add a few handfuls of egg noodles) and set the timer for another 10 minutes.

Serve with hot rolls or toasted homemade bread, and - if you're feeling adventurous - a green salad. Turn on some Simon & Garfunkel and enjoy.