Soup for a Sick Day

Izzy and I had a sick day which started out with him being sick and me coming over to make him some soup. Then I got sick several days later and tried to make the same thing, but ended up with a slightly different (but equally delicious) permutation. So this is actually 2 different recipes from the same base ingredients.

Ingredients:

3 leeks

5 or 6 carrots

2 red potatoes

3 tbsp olive oil

6 or 7 big cloves of garlic

Izzy's version:

• 5 frozen chicken tenderloins
• Trader Joe's everyday spice
• Trader Joe's pasta spice blend
• Garlic salt (to taste)
• Black pepper (to taste)
• 1/4 cup shredded green onion
• 1/4 cup shredded ginger
• 1 carton chicken broth
• 2 cups water

Kim's version:

• 3 chicken breasts
• ~1 pint Greek yogurt
• 3 cups dried egg noodles
• Ground salt (to taste)
• Black pepper (to taste)
• 1 tsp powdered ginger
• 1 tsp ground coriander seed
• 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
• 5 dashes "dried minced onion"
• 2 tbsp parsley flakes
• 2 tbsp oregano
• 2 tbsp ground thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• 5 tsp chicken bouillon
• 7 cups water

My version yields a larger pot of soup, which is almost like a stew (because all those noodles get bloated). Izzy's is definitely soupy. In either case, make sure you get a big enough pot to hold all the ingredients because this recipe makes a lot of soup - you'll be eating it for days. First, wash the hell out of all the vegetables (especially those leeks - they're always filthy). Heat up the olive oil in the bottom of the pot. Slice up the white and light green parts of the leeks and toss them in and fry them until they start getting a little soft. Meanwhile, cut up the carrots into little rounds and mince the garlic. Toss those in and fry them. Crunch a little salt in there to help the vegetables cook. Once the sauteed veggies start getting fragrant, pick a recipe and go with it:

For Izzy's soup, add the green onion and the fresh ginger. Fry for a minute or so. Pour in the chicken stock and add the water. Cut up the potatoes into little cubes and throw them in. Cook for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are nice and soft (a little less than 1 Futurama episode). Dice the chicken tenderloins and put them into the soup. Add in all the spices. Finish the rest of your Futurama episode, and then get about a third of the way through another one (about 10-15 minutes). Serve the soup.

For Kim's soup, pour in the water and the chicken bouillon. Cut up the potatoes into little cubes and throw them in. Cook for about 20 minutes (or until you start getting impatient and poking the potatoes to see if they're cooked). Dice the chicken breasts and put them in the soup to cook. Throw in all the spices (add them to taste - all measurements are approximate). Cook the chicken for 5 minutes, then slowly stir/scoop in the Greek yogurt. Throw in the egg noodles as an afterthought and cook for 7 more minutes until everything is creamy and noodley delicious (or, until the noodles get bloated and soft, like a body clogging up a river). Serve the soup.