Sim B

I’m highly annoyed that I’m running on less than 100% at the moment. It’s most inconvenient. There is no time to be sick … I have parties to attend and host … it’s the festive season!! And I’m not feeling festive. I feel like I want to wear my track pants and mooch around the house leaving a trail of tissues in my wake. (I’m blaming it on the bi-polar Durban weather!) Yesterday I lay on the couch feeling sorry for myself … and then I decided I needed to eat something restorative. And what could possibly be more appropriate that Chicken and Veg Noodle broth? I’m sure there are recipes for this – and possibly I read one once upon a time … but I just wing it and it seems to turn out ok.  The thing is, when you’re feeling less than energetic you want something quick and simple … and this took about 20 minutes from start to finish.

Ingredients (and commentary!)

4 chicken breasts (note: this would be even more flavoursome if you used chicken meat on the bone and then shred it – but I had chicken breasts at hand and it was less fussy than taking the meat off the bone.)

4 spring onions (whole)

3 tablespoons of chicken stock powder

Chilli – as much or little as you like ( note: I used paste as I didn’t have any fresh chilli and I like this hot and spicy so I used about 1 tablespoon.)

Ginger (I used the finely chopped frozen kind from Woolies)

Salt (rock salt/maldon) & Pepper

Veg (I used some baby marrows and courgettes)

400g Udon noodles (the par-cooked kind that only take 2 minutes to cook)

800mls of water (you can vary this depending on how watery you want the soup/broth – but you may also want to adjust the amount of stock powder to suit)

Corriander to garnish

Add the water, stock powder, chilli, ginger, spring onions and about a good pinch of salt (actually – I put in about a tablespoon of salt!) to your pot and allow this to come to the boil.

Add the chicken breasts to poach. (This will take about 8 – 10 minutes).

In the meantime, steam the veg.

Once the chicken is poached, remove and shred roughly. I also remove the spring onions at this point.

Add the shredded chicken back to the broth and add the noodles and chopped veg and simmer until the noodles are done.

Serve with some fresh coriander.

Just what the good doctor ordered!

x Sim x