an experiment that turned out scrumptiously delicious, and rather easy to do if you have a kitchen garden with a few veggies growing.
in a deep soup pot
add 2 teaspoons olive oil turn up med high add 2 chicken legs (with bones and skin) and 2 chicken wings (with bones and skin)
Fry them until the chicken has gone from raw to cooked. It’s going to spit at you, a lot, so do this with the lid on and simply shake the pot a lot to prevent sticking.
Then to this add 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar and 1/4 cup soy sauce
Keep frying on med high until all the moisture has gone and the balsamic and soy sauce have blackened the chicken and it’s all sticking to the bottom of the pot (lol). I suggest using a non stick pot for this, but I didn’t.
As soon as it starts to stick pour in 1 liter of boiled water with 1 and a half chicken stock cubes. Put the lid on and wait until the water boils. Once it’s boiling turn the heat down to medium low to simmer for the next hour.
In this time grab your greens. I use what’s in my garden which is why my recipes often seem so random.
small bunch of beetroot leaves (yellow and red) small bunch of purple kale small bunch of yellow and white spinach small bunch of mizuna greens small bunch of radish and turnip greens 3 fresh green beans finely chopped 1 small chili 2 small finely sliced sweet bell peppers 3 baby carrots finely sliced (I used white / purple / and orange)
also 1 teaspoon freshly chopped ginger 1/2 fresh garlic clove (finely sliced) 1 dessert spoon flax-seed (linseed) 1 dessert spoon short grained rice (like arborio) 1 packet of instant noodles 1 knob butter 3 spoons of sweet chili sauce 2 tsp maple syrup 2 spoons white rice vinegar 3 teaspoons lemon juice
spring onions for garnishing and crunch (added after serving)
Go back to the kitchen with your ingredients, wash them all well, then add the stalks of everything to the simmering pot. I simply stand over the pot with kitchen scissors and snip the spinach / beet/ etc stalks directly into the pot. Add the finely chopped carrots, ginger, garlic, and green beans. Add the rice and seeds and leave to simmer. Leave the chili whole, simply let it float around in the pot for 35 minutes to add zing, then remove it.
Remove the chicken pieces from the pot. Shred off the bone and remove all tendons, bones and skin, discard all but the cooked flesh. Then shred this directly back into the pot of simmering stock. Slice all greens remaining (the leaves) and add to the pot. Add 1 teaspoon paprika spice, 1/4 teaspoon Bovril, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 3 teaspoons lemon juice, 2 spoons white rice vinegar, 3 dessert spoons of sweet chill sauce, and 2 teaspoons maple syrup. Stir well and let it simmer with added water (± 3 cups) until all the greens are well softened. Add a packet of broken up instant noodles. Allow to cook until soft (± 2 minutes). Test taste. Add 1 teaspoon black pepper and 4 grinds of salt. Taste again. Add more salt if needed, or lemon juice if it needs a touch more sour. Stir in one knob of butter and serve. Add more water as and when needed to keep it a clear soup consistency.
Serve in big mugs with 1 fresh spring onion or onion greens chopped onto the top. I served this with a fork, as you’re eating and drinking your soup. If you want something to dunk as a side dish, serve with toasted 4 seed tortillas.
For a vegetarian version, use mushrooms instead of chicken.
The taste of this is so complex it’s hard to describe. You don’t taste the chili or garlic or ginger, it’s simply a cohesive bouquet which is scrumptious.
Makes enough for 4 large mugs
Nutritional info:
The kale and cabbage/broccoli/cauliflower family are exceptionally high in vitamin K, vitamin A, and manganese. They are bonded by amino acids (which are vital or human health) alanine, leucine, isoleucine, valine, tyrosine and methionine, containing glucosinolates which protect against cancers. They also contain the B vitamin group (B1 B2 B3 B5 B6 B9), choline, half your daily requirement of vitamin C, Vit E, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc and phosphorous. They’re high in amino acids, glutamine especially, and contain vitamin U (effective against stomach ulcers).
Spinach also contains high levels of vitamin K, vitamin A and B9. Contains B1 B2 B3 B6 B9 bit C and E, copper, calcium, iron, magnesium (22% of your daily requirement), manganese, potassium and zinc.
Basically all of the greens contain the same amounts of nutrients because they’re mostly format he same plant family. Mizuna, turnip greens, kale, cauliflower and cabbage leaves, are all the same family. All veggie greens are rich in iron, vitamin K and A.
Beet greens (beetroot leaves) are high in copper (40% of your daily requirement), vitamin C (48% of your daily requirement), vitamin A (61% of your daily requirement), and vitamin K (774% of your daily requirement), plus it contains potassium (37%) manganese (37%) vitamin B2 (32%) magnesium (24%) Vitamin E (17%) calcium (16%0 iron (15%) vitamin B1 (14%, B6 (11%), phosphorous, pantothenic acid, protein, zinc, B3 and folate. foods like this are good for you because they package calcium and magnesium together perfectly for max benefit.
So why the hype over vitamin K? you need it to bind calcium in your bones. Without vitamin K your body can’t bind calcium. All plant greens contain vitamin K (part of photosynthesis), and the plant with the highest K content is rhubarb (which I’m now growing for its K content), and yet lettuce contains the least amount of K. You need K for blood clotting, bone metabolism, and for healthy veins (vascular biology). Soy beans also contain bit K, and this needs to be absorbed with a fat/oil.
What about my other ingredients? I use red/orange/yellow bell peppers in as many dishes as I can because they contain 97% of your daily vitamin C requirement, (along with all the other nutrients already listed, yes, even vit K). You need vitamin C to make collagen (connective tissue used in bone, tendons, blood vessels, cartilage, your corneas, and your skin). Collagen comes from the Greek word for ‘glue’. Without vitamin C you will fall part :P lol. Basically collagen is made up of amino acids, but to make collagen your body needs vitamin C, and we deplete our vitamin C sources every 3 hours, and if you’re a smoker you deplete yours every time you have a cigarette. Your immune cells require vit C, and it’s a potent antioxidant. Vitamin C enhances iron absorption, so mixing red bell peppers with foods like kale and spinach high in iron, this is food marriage, it’s kitchen alchemy, this is the rung to good health.
Onion / Garlic: aside from biotin, their nutritional content is marginal, but eating onions helps bone density (preventing loss of it). The sulfur content in them is also required for our connective tissue. They’re rich in polyphenols and quercetin,are antioxidant (prevent fatty acids from oxidizing, which leads to inflammation), and apparently science says eating half an onion a day prevents cancer. (But please bear in mind that it takes an onion 9 months to grow - the same time as human gestation. We eat them in a night, but it took farmer 9 months to grow it for you). They’re also strong antibacterials, killing bacteria (and because of it prevent gum disease and some bacteria like the streptococcus strains are known to cause tooth cavities, so chewing onion kills the bacteria responsible for holes in your teeth).