When I first met my husband I discovered he had a lot of food allergies. In particular, he was allergic to canola oil and wouldn’t you know it, just about every packet of food you pick up at the grocery has canola oil in its ingredients. Whether it is sliced bread, a gourmet ready-to-cook-and-serve meal, a bag of chips, or a can of soup, there will be canola oil in it.
He craved ordinary food that most people take for granted but he would not always check the labels. We enjoyed eating out but most restaurants use canola oil in their kitchens. Establishments will lie through their teeth about it too! Trust me, I know these things. Sure enough he would get so sick. When that happened, the only thing that he would ask for would be chicken soup. So I decided to just make him the soup from scratch. Easy right? Not so much.
You fill the stock pot with chickens, root vegetables, onions, celery, salt, garlic and herbs? After one hour, you pull the chickens out and take off the breast meat and return the remaining carcasses to the pot. After another three hours you are dumping it all out as you now have your home made broth. This has to be refrigerated overnight, the fat skimmed off the following day, and then you’re ready for the next round. You now put new vegetables in, the original shredded chicken breasts and of course the noodles. After maybe 25 minutes more you’ll finally have your soup! All in all, maybe four hours plus of your time for probably the best soup you’ll ever have in your life. Was it worth the effort? Yes, but don’t make a career out of it. Life’s too short!
Chicken soup can heal parts of you no one can see The ultimate gift Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing All Rights Reserved PS. I always use the Barefoot Contessa’s Chicken Soup Recipe. Mish is hosting D’Verse for Haibun Monday and has prompted us with Soup.
Chicken soup is the best in cooler temperatures. I especially like Sopa de pollo!
Thanks Susi. I agree ☺️💕
<3 Happy Monday!
So true that it is a gift of labour and love. What a beautiful haiku to garnish your story.
Thank you so much Mish ☺️💕
I grew up on homemade soups. I don’t know my Mother found the time and she worked outside the home. As a child I didn’t realise how labour intensive soup making could be. 🤨
Yes, our mothers were amazing and really did not have any ‘quick fixes’ in those days. Everything was laborious. ☺️💕
It sounds like a very yummy soup… I do not think I ever have made soup like that complicated. I think food here would probably use rape seed oil and not canola oil
Unfortunately he has the same reaction to rapeseed, soybean oil and vegetable oil. The only ones that are safe are Olive, avocado and coconut 😬
Enjoyed reading your ‘soupy’ Haibun! It’s removing chicken meat from the carcass that befuddles me ~ I usually manage to find a small bone fragment when shredding begins. Ugh.
Yes Helen. That was me too so now I buy chicken thighs a legs with the bones and separate breasts. Easier to remove and no bones! The thighs and legs give you all the goodness from the bones and get dumped anyway. ☺️👍
I’m sorry that you had to go the hard route to find out what your husband couldn’t eat. Chicken soup is a great food but as you v say, it involves a lot of work.
Thanks Sadje. Sometimes it is a chore and there is not always the time to devote to it, so when you do make it, it is worth it ☺️💕
So right my friend
The serious pursuit of homemade soups best left for later in life, when time us a’plenty.
Isn’t that the truth Rob 🤣
I feel for you. I have many food allergies which makes food prep necessary.
I’m sorry to hear that VJ. Yes making things from scratch can be labor intensive but the food always tastes better ☺️💕