Every year I set a goal in the kitchen. I have learned if I take my goals one at a time rather than mastering Julie Child’s recipes all at one time I am more successful. Once in a while I will choose two goals if they are somewhat basic and easier to master.
One year I set the goal to master savory broths we would want to sip slowly. The kind that leaves you satisfied and healthier at the end of the meal. I knew if I mastered broths, I could master sauces. Sauces are after all basically thickened broths. The year I set out to accomplish this goal I learned more than I had ever dreamed possible.
I learned how to pair which vegetables with which meat. I learned sweating vegetables with the herbs and spices I was going to use before simmering them with the meat and broth, allowed for a more robust flavor that was missing if I skipped this step. I learned the reason between the flavor difference is sweating the herbs and spices allows them to open up and to become more flavorful.
I learned to not throw the whole kitchen sink into my broths. Prior to my set veggies I use for broth now I would save broccoli stems, cabbage stems and other veggie odds and ends. My broth would turn out funky and it wasn’t as savory as I wanted it to be.
Mark has not always loved soup. In fact he would tell you it was about as tasty as broccoli in his opinion. However, with the nature of his messed up gut, he has learned to embrace it. While I have learned to make it delicious and savory. When he tells me about a food he doesn’t like my mind says, game on and set about trying to find the best, delicious way to prepare it.
Our go to soup in our house is a basic chicken soup. Prior to Mark’s elimination diet our soup consisted of homemade bone broth, chicken, carrots, onions, celery, fresh ginger and garlic (you can use powder or dried, but fresh is definitely best), salt, curry (the secret ingredient our soup had been missing) and pepper.
From this basic soup it is easy to turn it into Chicken Tortilla Soup, drain the broth and make a Chicken Pot Pie. With a few simple ingredients you can also make Chicken Chili. To keep it simple and yet change it up tortellini or ravioli is a delicious change from regular ole noodles.
Similar recipes are easy to change or mix and match with a basic beef soup as well. Soups are very frugal and nutrient dense, especially if you make your bone broth from scratch.