The Soup Strikes Back.

Following my flatmate’s bout of food poisoning (to me, minor; to her, ghastly), I was forced to forgo making a rich lasagna for dinner and instead replace it with something a little less heavy and a little easier to digest.

The brief was that it couldn’t require much effort on her part, had to involve a broth and absolutely had to contain glass noodles. The answer here was obvious: I’ve already hammered on about the healing properties of soup, and what better way to really rehash a tired argument than to blog about it again?

This time around, the soup was light and fragrant and filled with fresh ingredients. The chicken remained tender and moist and the bok choy added a nice dose of clean, natural flavour. If possible, I much prefer using fresh vegetables over tinned or even frozen. There’s something invigorating about eating pure and wholesome vegetables that you can’t really emulate in a cylindrical piece of aluminum or a plastic bag. Buy in season and, if you live near one, buy from a fruit and vegetable market, such as Paddy’s in Sydney. You save money this way and also get the most bang for your hard-earned buck in terms of freshness and flavour.

The use of fresh vegetables also really ups the healing ante with the addition of extra vitamins and minerals. It was the perfect antidote to my flatmate’s ailments and the best way to silence her cries of pain (admittedly only for a lowly ten minutes) as she noisily slurped it down.

Chicken, Noodle and Bok Choy Soup.

Chicken, Noodle and Bok Choy Soup

Serves 4

4 chicken drumsticks

1.5L chicken stock

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 tsp powdered ginger

200g dried rice sticks (also known as rice noodles)

1 bunch bok choy, washed and roughly chopped

pepper, to taste

1. Place the stock and the chicken drumsticks into a large pot and bring to the boil.

2. Reduce to a simmer and add the soy sauce, ginger and pepper.

3. Simmer on medium heat for around 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Pull a piece out and cut open to check.

4. Add the rice noodles, cover with the soup stock and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the noodles are cooked through.

5. Add the chopped bok choy and cook for another 5 minutes.

6. Check the seasoning and add more soy sauce accordingly.

7. Remove from the heat and ladle into bowls to serve.

* If you so desire, you can shred the chicken off the bones after they’re cooked and re-add it. Much to my flatmate’s embarrassment, I’m an infamous bone-gnawer and prefer to keep it on.

Layin’ Down Some Silverbeets.

My homie and I had been craving some good ol’ green leafy goodness. We normally choose bok choy as our nutrient-rich green of choice but hectic uni schedules meant we were unable to get to Paddy’s Markets in Sydney to pick some up.

So instead we found some silverbeet in our local hood, on special and with the leaves conveniently cut from the stalk – saving dollarz and time.

Initially I’d been apprehensive about getting the silverbeet, aka chard or Swiss chard, due to not really knowing what to do with it. I knew it was much like spinach and could probably be used in the same way – in a cheese and spinach pie, in cannelloni, sauteed, and so on and so forth. I remembered one recipe that combined the silverbeet with bacon but I wasn’t really sure how. My own recipe books didn’t provide much inspiration in the way of cooking it so I decided to wing it with whatever we had in the crib.

The end result was pretty fly, if I say so myself. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’ll taste too much like your momma’s vegetables that you saved so hard and for so long to move away from. With the right ingredients, even a brussels sprout can taste like the shiz. Word.

Silverbeet with bacon.

Sauteed Silverbeet with Bacon

Serves 2

1 tsp olive oil

125g diced bacon

1 small brown onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

350g silverbeet, washed and chopped

pepper

lemon juice, to serve

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.

2. Add the bacon and fry until the edges are browned. The oil from the bacon should be enough to fry off the onion and garlic.

3. Add the onion and garlic and fry until soft.

4. Add the silverbeet, stir to coat it with the other ingredients and cover with a lid.

5. Leave to cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the pan is too dry, add a bit of water.

6. Season with pepper (the bacon should add enough saltiness, but if not, add some salt).

7. When the silverbeet is cooked through, remove from heat and serve with freshly squeezed lemon juice.