What is it with soup? Everyone seems to think making soup is some kind of long, drawn out ordeal. Or at least everyone I've been talking to. When I told people at school that I was making chicken noodle soup tonight I got a chorus of oohs and aahs. Somebody asked how I was going to manage it—our class didn't end until 4:30, after all!
(I guess I should mention that making soup on my electric stove in Princeton can be something of a safety hazard. The biggest coil burner gets a little finicky when a heavy stock put full of soup lands on it, and it sometimes (or, almost every time) sends out a few little sparks of excitement. It knows how good the soup is, too!)
Anyway, I want to debunk this myth about soup. Soup's not hard to make, and it needn't take much time at all. So here I'm going to lay out a quick and easy way to make chicken noodle stew for two. I'm calling this a stew because I only had one quart of chicken stock in the freezer. If you have two, add the second and soup you've got.
Equipment:
- a nice long wooden spoon
- a stock pot (we're not making a huge amount soup, but use a biggish one)
- a digital meat thermometer
Ingredients:
- one quart of chicken stock (homemade if you have it on hand, but storebought will suffice. if you're buying it, make sure it's stock and not broth)
- one whole chicken breast (sometimes that's two pieces, sometimes they're attached)
- one large carrot
- two medium stalks of celery
- one small onion
- two big cloves of garlic
- half a bunch of kale
- two red potatoes
- one small leek
- egg noodles—about a third of a regular sized bag (or more or less depending on your taste)
- a lemon
- a bit of thyme
- a little parsley (optional)
Before you begin, preheat your oven to 450 degrees, rinse and dry your chicken breast and place it in a small roasting dish. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees—don't let it overcook and dry out!
For the soup base:
Warm your soup pot over medium heat. Cut the onion in half lengthwise (from root to root) and peel off the skin. Slice thinly. Add a few splashes of olive oil to coat the bottom of your pot, swirl to heat the oil, then toss in the onions. You want to cook the onions for a while, so do this step first and then start preparing the other vegetables. After about 15-20 minutes, and with the occasional stir, the onions should start to turn brown (not brown as in black as in brunt, but more of a mellow caramel color). That means they're going to taste really good, so be patient and wait for it.
In the meantime, remove the roots and dark green parts from the leek. Cut it in half and then slice the stalk into thin half moons. Cut the potato into medium sized chunks—you want them to cook relatively quickly but not fall apart. Cut the carrot in half lengthwise and slice into 1/4"-1/2" half moons. Cut up the celery and slice up the garlic, too, but don't worry about getting it too fine.
If your onions are lovely and brown by now, toss in the leek. Cook for two minutes, stirring a few times. Add the potato. Cook for two minutes more, stirring. Now add the carrot and celery and garlic, and give everything a few minutes to get a little bit soft, but not mushy. Pour in the stock and cover the pot.
While your soup is coming to a simmer in the pot, start work on the chicken. You can either cut the raw chicken breast into pieces and saute them with a little olive oil and thyme in a frying pan, or roast the breasts whole, drizzled with a olive oil and the herbs, for 20-30 minutes in an oven set to 425. Either way, the chicken should be just barely cooked through—not at all pink, not at all dry.
After your vegetables have simmered in the stock for at least 20 minutes, check them for softness. They should be neither too soft nor too hard—definitely not crunchy. Tip in the cooked chicken and the egg noodles, and cook for a few minutes more (or for about a minute less than the noodle package instructs). Test the noodles for doneness. Remove the pot from the heat, ladle the soup into bowls, and squeeze a little lemon juice on top. Garnish with chopped parsley.
On second thought, you really could serve more than two people with this recipe—or serve two for two nights in a row.
One of my favorite things is making a birthday feast. I'm talking about the kinds of meals that take (at least) a couple of days to make and involve a week (or more!) of planning and preparation: table placing, drink tasting, menu writing. A decorated cake is a must, in my book. Recently, a good friend moved back to town and her arrival happened to coincide with her birthday. This was obviously cause for a very special meal.
Here's a beauty! White pizza with ricotta, shaved asparagus, chili flakes, smoked sea salt, and drenched in chive blossoms and white truffle oil when pulled from the oven. Thin, crisp, and full of floral flavor. Perfect for a late spring night, and none too soon. Summer is creeping in!
It should be some kind of new tradition, this: Linguini con le Vongole and good ol' American yellow cake with chocolate frosting. 
