That recent recipe for chicken and vegetable soup was simply delicious. I used leeks instead of regular onions, added 2 celery ribs, 2 carrots, 3 potatoes, some green beans and peas for my vegetables. The seasonings were perfect.

Glad you liked it Jan, all the recipes are tried and tested before being added to the site.

Its nice to see that people aren't afraid to chop and change things to suit what's in the cupboards and personal taste etc

This is a family favourite with us, changes a little every time depending on what we have in!

thanks for letting us know how it went

Steve

I presume you mean this recipe - Chicken and Vegetable soup

Steve

Yes, that's the one. For some reason, here in the US, people don't generally make soup to eat during the summer, it is thought of more as a cold weather type of food, but I was just in the mood for soup and figured that I could buy a preroasted chicken and cut down on some of the work. I'll be using the leftover chicken to try a new recipe for Asian pasta with chicken. Also wanted to say that your Greek meatball recipe is also very good. The only thing that I do differently, is to reduce the amount of cinnamon, but that is just a personal preference. I usually add the grated potato rather than the breadcrumbs to the Greek meatballs. I am hoping to eventually try the Cyprus bread rolls that you also have on this site. So many recipes and so little time!!

I love hot soups in all weathers, but don't forget there are some great cold soup recipes too! Vichyssoise (of US origin?,) Beetroot Borscht, but my favourite has be a lovely tomatoey Gazpacho with different garnishes so it become a feast in itself.

Winton

I thought that vichyssoise (sp?) was French, but I could be wrong.

According to this website - http://members.cox.net/jjschnebel/vichysoi.html it was invented in New York !

Steve

Yes, that is what I found too - made by a Frenchman in New York.

Thought I'd check Gazpacho too. Seems it was brought to Spain by Arabs, and tomatoes are a relatively new addition to it after the New World had been discovered.

Winton

Thanks for that link, it was very interesting to read, and something that I did not know. A cookbook that I once had claimed the early American colonists used to call tomatoes something like "poisoned apples" and didn't use them for quite a while. Tomatoes have certainly changed the foods of many cultures. I think though, that some of the countries, like Iraq for example, used tamarind for that sour touch before tomatoes were introduced into their cuisine. Now they still use tamarind, but some dishes use tomatoes.

We've been doing gaspacho all summer: it's a fab cold soup, great for lunch in the hot summers here in the South of France.

We do toasted baguette rubbed with raw garlic as croutons, and serve it with a garnish which consists of little cubes of cucumber, red pepper and onion.

My wife got the recipe from a Spanish friend in Belgium. She swears that it's a great hangover cure!

I can well believe Gazpacho being a good hangover cure. Firstly any soup hot or cold is very comforting. A 'bloody mary' is a traditional hangover cure (although I don't subscribe to the 'hair of the dog' theories, adding more alcohol can only prolong the agony.

However I've always found a 'virgin mary' (i.e. no vodka) a very restorative tonic. All that tomato juice bursting with vitamins and nutrients, and fructrose to metabolise any alcohol. Lemon juice - a natural 'cleanser,' and a good zap of tabasco and worcester sauce to clear the fuzziest of heads!

I find that drinking plenty of water before going to bed helps more than anything else ! As most of the problem is the dehydration its wise to replace the lost water before spending all night suffering.

Sensible drinking would be the order of the day though.

Steve

When I first went to Poland, back around 1985, this Polish woman in a restuarant in Gdansk said 'Try this Polish soup; it's called 'flaki', but I'm not going to tell you what's in it'.

It was delish.

Then she told me that it was made from tripe.

Didn't stop the romance from blossoming!

I did my first chicken noodle soup this summer, for a friend we now call 'The English Patient', since he was taken to hospital while here on holiday. It was made from my own, freshly-prepared, chicken stock. Worked a treat!

Phil

Ahh Phil, good old 'Jewish Penicillin.' After boiling up the carcass from a Sunday roast sometimes the stock is just too good to use as stock - chicken broth HAS to be made. Asking why Jewish mothers always seemed to be making chicken soup (apart from as a tasty/medicinal meal,) I was told it was to take off the yellow fat that forms overnight to use in place of butter for those who take a strict line with dietary rules.

The big chicken soup eaters must be the Chinese though. Take your broth and as well as the noodles, add sweet corn, splash of soy sauce; chilli and chopped ginger to taste: yum!

Winton

Thanks for the tip re Chinese soup! The only Chinese soup we currently do has little strips of pork and several kinds of Chinese mushroom. It's a hot and sour soup: really delicious.

Didn't know that about Jewish mothers: you always learn new things here!