I love a hot steaming bowl of chicken soup.
Now I am not talking the Heinz version with cream & calories a plenty, I mean the traditional, homemade version that my Grandmother taught me to make.
On this new journey of my life I am looking at ways to not only cut the calories and the fat but also to reduce the amount of Carbs that I have been consuming.
As a nation we are carbing ourselves up like it is going out of fashion, every meal eaten contains either bread, pasta, rice or potatoes, the filling ourselves with all this carbohydrate is not helping me get into my skinny jeans and so I needed to look at options, including chicken soup and how to reduce them.
My Grandmothers recipe, as tasty as it was contained chicken thighs (8) with skin on, fried in oil and browned before being added to the pot, a few potatoes to thicken it & lots of salt & some olive oil to add to consistency.
My version was still healthy but was more nutritious and did not contain and salt, a low salt chicken stock cube was added. I used a whole chicken (also trying to cut down on costs) but first of all whilst cooking my vegetables in a one spray of olive oil sprayer I decided to take the whole skin off the chicken (prior to cooking).
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What proceeded was an operation of sorts with hidden bits of skin tucked into the neck and bottom (the weight alone of a small chicken was 105g of pure skin, not something that i want leaching all its calories in to my healthy soup!
Ingredients
1 small free range chicken
1 onion, halved
1 rib celery
1 courgette, diced
2 leek, washed and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
A few stalks parsley
A few peppercorns
1 chicken low salt stock cube (Knorr)
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon dried Italian Herbs
snippet of chives
Put all the vegetables in a large stockpot and fry in one spray of olive oil spray, once softened add the chicken on top and cover with water, and bring to a boil. Add the stock cube and all the herbs & skim any scum that appears, then let cook at a simmer for about 2 hours. Remove the chicken and once the chicken is cool enough to handle shred all the meat from the bone and add back into the pan.
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Simmer for 10 minutes and then serve with a few chives freshly snipped on top.
It is a bowl of comfort and nutrition & shall be something that I am making on a biweekly basis.
After trying to work out the calories on the two soups, per bowl, and this makes 4 large bowls the original soup was 450 calories per bowl
This version that I have made healthier is 150 calories per bowl.
Now I am not talking the Heinz version with cream & calories a plenty, I mean the traditional, homemade version that my Grandmother taught me to make.
On this new journey of my life I am looking at ways to not only cut the calories and the fat but also to reduce the amount of Carbs that I have been consuming.
As a nation we are carbing ourselves up like it is going out of fashion, every meal eaten contains either bread, pasta, rice or potatoes, the filling ourselves with all this carbohydrate is not helping me get into my skinny jeans and so I needed to look at options, including chicken soup and how to reduce them.
My Grandmothers recipe, as tasty as it was contained chicken thighs (8) with skin on, fried in oil and browned before being added to the pot, a few potatoes to thicken it & lots of salt & some olive oil to add to consistency.
My version was still healthy but was more nutritious and did not contain and salt, a low salt chicken stock cube was added. I used a whole chicken (also trying to cut down on costs) but first of all whilst cooking my vegetables in a one spray of olive oil sprayer I decided to take the whole skin off the chicken (prior to cooking).
.JPG)
Ingredients
1 small free range chicken
1 onion, halved
1 rib celery
1 courgette, diced
2 leek, washed and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
A few stalks parsley
A few peppercorns
1 chicken low salt stock cube (Knorr)
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon dried Italian Herbs
snippet of chives
Put all the vegetables in a large stockpot and fry in one spray of olive oil spray, once softened add the chicken on top and cover with water, and bring to a boil. Add the stock cube and all the herbs & skim any scum that appears, then let cook at a simmer for about 2 hours. Remove the chicken and once the chicken is cool enough to handle shred all the meat from the bone and add back into the pan.
.JPG)
It is a bowl of comfort and nutrition & shall be something that I am making on a biweekly basis.
After trying to work out the calories on the two soups, per bowl, and this makes 4 large bowls the original soup was 450 calories per bowl
This version that I have made healthier is 150 calories per bowl.
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