You Can't Talk About Food Without A Recipe #2: Chicken Soup For The Cancer Fighters Soul

I make a good chicken soup. I've been doing it for years, and it's pretty easy and basic. When it comes to adapting a chicken soup recipe to help with the fight against cancer there are a few simple changes. First I had to give up the easy flavoring method of using bouillon cubes or packages. There's just too much salt in them and excess salt in the diet may cause stomach cancer. I used sea salt and increased the amount of herbs (which are great cancer fighters) in the stock. Second, I'm always looking for a way to include turmeric in my cooking now. Turmeric encourages cancer cell death, inhibits tumor growth, and enhances the effectiveness of chemotherapy. It's also the most powerful natural anti-inflammatory agent available. Third, I had to eliminate refined white flour noodles or white rice. I substituted wild rice. What I ended up with was delicious, nutritious, and an aide in the fight against cancer. Here's the recipe:

Chicken Soup For The Cancer Fighters Soul

Step 1

Boil the chicken in water. Use what ever you have. The more the better because chicken is good protein, and not as high in saturated fat as some meats. Removing the fat before cooking is good but you're going to refrigerate the chicken and the water overnight so it's not necessary at this point. You can add scraps of vegetables and seasonings to flavor the stock if you want, but that isn't necessary either, because you will do most of the seasoning in step 2. When the chicken is cooked, remove from the water and cover both the water and the chicken and refrigerate over night. This allows the fat to rise to the top and congeal so it is easily removed.

Step 2 (the next day)

Chop carrots, celery, and onions. You really can't have too much. It depends on the size of the pot you're working with. If you're going to the trouble of making home made soup, make as much as you can and freeze the left over. Just to give you an idea, a 5 qt. dutch oven would call for at least a cup of each. Fresh garlic is nice, but you can use powdered too. Use a minimum of 4 cloves, and if you like garlic use more, garlic is a good cancer fighter. Crush the cloves with the flat of the knife and chop fine. Fresh or frozen broccoli and frozen peas can be added in at the end.

Begin by putting olive or canola oil in the pot (the bigger the pot, the more soup you'll end up with). Saute' the carrots, celery and onions. When they're beginning to get translucent put in the garlic (unless you're using powder, that can go in with the spices) turn the heat down a little bit so as not to burn the garlic. Remove the congealed fat from the water the chicken was boiled in. Place a strainer over the pot with the vegetables, line the strainer with a paper towel, (or two connected paper towels if it's a large colander you're using) to filter out any particles in the water. Pour the chicken stock through the strainer. If you have packaged, low sodium chicken stock you can add that in now too. You want the vegetables to be covered with at least 4 times their volume in stock and/or water (if necessary).

Now it's time to add the herbs and spices. This is always a dash, here and a handful there, so you'll need to experiment, but to give you a rough idea: 3 bay leaves, 1 tb poultry seasoning, 1 tsp each of thyme, basil, and if you like, oregano. Start with 2 tsp salt and taste and adjust as you go. It's difficult to measure pepper from a pepper grinder, use your best judgement. Now for the turmeric: if you have cancer, you'll want to use a lot, start with 2 tablespoons and if that tastes o.k. to you, try adding more. If you don't have cancer, you can use less, but it adds a nice color and it's not going to hurt you so be liberal.

While the soup is simmering, remove any skin and bones from the chicken you've used and rinse any fat from it. Chop it and add it to the pot. Check the seasonings. Adjust as necessary. If it's too strong, add water, too weak add more seasoning. When it tastes the way you like it, make sure the pot is simmering and add the wild rice. The rice will take an hour to cook so set the timer and take a break from the kitchen. Add the broccoli and peas at the end. When the broccoli is tender it's ready to serve. You'll never need to buy chicken soup from a can with this recipe! Get single serving size containers for the freezer and you'll always have something to go with your sandwich at lunch time. I just hope you aren't using white bread.