Make It, Eat It: Emergency chicken soup

You know those days when you wake up feeling utterly disgusting for no reason at all? When you've had a sensible, non-alcoholic night of listening to Christmas songs and reading, only to be rewarded by a swollen throat and the inability to breathe? That's what I woke up to this morning. I can't fathom how this is fair, but I've just accepted that this is not going to be a productive day.

I talked to The Mother this morning (not because I felt ill, I can handle a blocked nose and sore throat on my own!), and she told me (a) to drink green tea and honey, and (b) to have some chicken soup for lunch. So I did. I'm not a massive fan of tinned chicken soup - it tastes fatty and fake, and it's too sweet for me. I don't tend to buy it, so I had no option but to make it. I think it worked pretty well!

I Googled a few recipes to see what is generally put in a chicken soup. I wanted a broth based one rather than cream, most of which had noodles in, so I ended up with a delicious gingery chicken noodle soup. I've called this "Emergency chicken soup" because as usual I had very few of the actual ingredients that I saw in recipes. But it worked just as well.

Ingredients

• 1 large chicken breast, uncooked and cut into small slivers or chunks, however you prefer
• 1 vegetable stock cube (chicken stock would obviously make the soup more chicken-y)
• 1 litre boiling water
• Butter/oil/cooking spray
• A quarter of a red onion
• Four mushrooms (I used closed cup ones, but a stronger tasting variety might be nicer)
• 1 inch ginger root
• Spices
• Noodles

Method

1. Chop the onion and mushroom to whatever size you prefer. Heat the butter/oil/cooking spray in a large saucepan and gently fry for a few minutes. Take off the heat.
2. Finely slice the ginger, or grate it if you prefer to have smaller pieces. Put it in the pan with the onions and mushrooms. Of course, if you don't like ginger then don't bother with it. I think the soup would be nice with some chilli in it, if spicy is your thing.
3. Make up a litre of stock. Pour into the saucepan, bring to the boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer. Add the chicken, turn the heat up a little, and leave until the chicken is cooked through.
4. I added some fennel, cumin and coriander seeds to the pot, as well as some black pepper. I wouldn't add salt, there's enough of it in the stock. Add whatever you feel like - if I was at home I would have added some chives or spring onion in at the end.

Gently simmering...

Finished product!

Also, check out how amazing my soup mug is! My grandmother gave it to me on my last birthday, and I definitely don't use it enough.

This recipe makes enough for two servings - I've put the rest in fridge in case it's necessary for tomorrow! The rest of today will be spent in leggings and my Kermit jumper, drinking tea and listening to Of Monsters and Men. Just because.