h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I make chicken soup very regularly - it's in the blood, you see.

As a lazy slob, I would never make such a small quantity - making four times the amount takes little extra work.

A tastier recipe would include: a very ripe tomato, some cabbage and/or leeks, and the juice of a lemon - occasionally, I add a little shin.

I sometimes wonder, though, whether my cooking the soup for several hours, in an effort to maximise flavour, reduces the nutritional value of the soup.

Oops! Forgot to add the turnip - something I'd never forget in real life.

Well, I confess that I usually make at least a chicken worth, for much the same reasons. Leeks sound nice. I might try that.

But cabbage and tomato? Then you are in schee territory. I plan to write an entry on that too.

Anyway. In the blood?

I really should have called this thread 'A good starter'.

In Spain, lunch is the most substantial meal of the day, and dinner is a much lighter affair. So, the meals I prepare for my partner - who will have had her three-course lunch at work - include salads, pureés, and chicken soup... as a main course.

That's why I throw in so many vegetables. If there are a few green beans lingering in the fridge, I'll cut them into small pieces and add them too, along with most of the other vegetables, late in the day (or they turn to mush).

The ripe tomato and the lemon juice help to counteract the sweetness of some of my ingredients. By the way, the shee recipe - that I had to google for - calls for much more cabbage than I use in chicken/vegetable soup.

More standard ingredients (for me ) I forgot to mention earlier: a teaspoonful of marmite, Vogel's Herbamare vegetable salt (instead of plain sea salt), and a dash of olive oil.

"In the blood?" I'm short of time now, so I'll just say that I am the type of Jew most feared by the Jewish establishment... one that leaves the faith - a faith I rejected even earlier than my discovery that Daddy was Papa Noel.

You do realise you left out the salt?

@ Rudest Elf: My MiL puts in potatoes as a bulking out agent. But Russians in general spurn vegetables beyond the odd carrots. She thinks the celery is controversial. Except in schee. Cabbage all the way down!

@Yarreau: Ah. Ooops. I don;t cook with salt myself. This is because a) small children and b) my husband will dump a huge amount of salt in when it's served anyway, and I do not feel he needs any more. Still, I always think seasoning is automatic (or not) for people, so it'l work out, surely?

I'm not sure whether you've made any changes, but this is now a very good Entry.

"She thinks the celery is controversial."

I've just doublechecked with Evelyn Rose's 'The Complete International Jewish Cookbook' (as if I had to ), and I'm sorry to say that one really cannot call chicken soup lacking celery "Jewish Penicillin"!

"Alternatively, you can put the soup into the fridge without removing anything and wait until the next day"

According to Evelyn Rose, and I think you'll aggree, "Chicken soup should always be made the day before it is served, as the flavour is incomparatively better on the second day, when the pale stock will have metamorphosed into 'Jewish penicillin'".

As noted by Yarreau, you might add 'Season to taste' or somesuch to the recipe.