Soup can be the healthiest and easiest thing you can make. It can be the simplest broth or can be laden with several ingredients for a satisfying meal in itself. Basic soup ingredients include a liquid, seasoning and a main ingredient. The liquid or base is typically water or can be a meat or vegetable stock. How do you chose the liquid? First you need to determine if you want the the liquid to add flavor to your soup. If you are using meat on the bone in your soup, water will be fine because the meat and bones are going to flavor your soup. If you are making a vegetable soup water is a good idea so the vegetables are the most prominent flavor in the soup.
The seasoning of a soup will typically start with aromatics of celery, carrots, and onion and then you can build upon that. You can season your soup with whatever spices and herbs you like. If you want to add fresh herbs be sure to add them at the end so you get that fresh burst of flavor and freshness they provide.
If adding meat to the soup such as chicken you have some options on how and when to add it to the pot. For some soups (liken homemade chicken) you will just add it to the pot and cook along with the other ingredients. For other soup (such as beef barley) you will want to brown the meat to add more intense flavor.
For this soup I used a roasted chicken that I brought from my local grocery store. This is a nice way to shorten the cooking time of your soup and still get amazing flavor. You are more than welcome to use raw chicken but you will want to make sure the chicken is cooked completely before eating your soup.
This is a crockpot recipe, but you can of course cook this on the stove if you like. It's the same process except you want to bring your soup to a boil and then let simmer for 30 minutes (if using cooked chicken) to an hour (if using raw chicken) until the chicken is falling off the bone.
When cooking I highly recommend that you play with the ingredients that you like when cooking for yourself and family.
Chicken and black bean soup (Serves 4-6)
- 8 cups water
- 1 whole roasted chicken - skin removed
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 celery stalk, diced
- 1 16 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels
- 1 lime, cut in half
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 bay leaves
- 1.5 - 2 teaspoons salt and pepper
Place all ingredients in the crockpot and cook on high for two hours. Taste and adjust seasoning is necessary. Remove bay leaves, limes wedges (squeeze any juice out of them first) and the chicken from the pot. Let the chicken cool enough to touch and remove the bones being especially careful to remove the small ones. Throw away the bay leaves, lime wedges and the bones. Shred the chicken meat and put it back into the soup.
One note about bay leaves: I always put an even number of bay leaves into whatever I am cooking because it's easier to remember how many to remove. These are not edible and you want to make sure you throw them away so no one eats them.
Comments