Eating broth and and broth-based soups for lunch was sacred in my childhood. My mom told me that my stomach will dry out if I don’t eat my soup for lunch. Now that I grew up and free to eat whatever I want, I still prefer soups to any other meal for lunch.
Chicken broth or chicken soup was remedy #1 for colds in my family. Now I know it has medicinal effects for sure. A recent research proved: traditionally cooked chicken soup reduced the symptoms of respiratory infections.
In Europe, and particularly Eastern Europe, there is a long tradition of soup cooking: chicken noodles, cabbage soup, borscht, solyanka, and many more. Most of the traditional Eastern European soups are based on broth or stock, and a lot of families have their special recipe for preparing a broth/stock which they carefully pass from generation to generation.
Same thing in Asia. Noodles in all kinds of broth, spiced with ginger and lemon grass is dominant in Chinese restaurants. Thai cuisine boasts a variety of coconut based soups like Tom Yum and Tom Kha. Vietnamese Pho (my personal favorite) has become so popular nowadays, that cafes offering pho pop up all across the nation.
In North America soups are not popular in general, and often times they are a cream of some vegetable topped with cheddar, almost never a meal by themselves they usually go as an appetizer before a main course. It was a surprise for me, that most kids do not even know what soup is when in fact it always seemed to me like an easy and well-balanced meal for little ones.
However in the recent years, thanks to science and popularization of healthy eating, I see a growing interest towards broths and stocks. Eating soup is healthy!
Here is a recipe for a perfect chicken broth. Enjoy!
Homemade Chicken Broth Bonus recipe for a quick soup: Add a hard boiled egg, cut in half, chopped fresh herbs like parsley, cilantro, basil, green onions. You got a quick soup!
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