Quick Chicken, Sage & Vegetable Soup

Chicken soup - an all time winter favourite that warms you to your bones and comforts you when you're feeling under the weather. This is my version when I'm pushed for time and have a few random vegies left in the fridge at the end of the week. I like to always keep a few chicken breasts in the freezer for times like this! This soup is also delicious served the next day as the flavours develop and infuse right through - especially the lemon rind.

Ingredients:

• Handful fresh sage leaves
• 2-3 chicken breasts
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind
• 1 leek, finely sliced
• 1 large turnip or swede, finely diced
• 3 celery sticks, finely diced
• 1 large carrot, finely diced
• 1 cup corn kernels
• 1 large sprig fresh thyme (removed from stalk)
• 1/2 can or 1-2 fresh chopped tomatoes 
• 1 litre fresh chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
• 3 spring onions, chopped
• Fresh sprouts (I like broccoli sprouts, pea sprouts are also good!)

Method:

1. Sweat the leek in a large pot over medium/high heat with a little oil until soft.
2. Add sage, thyme, carrot, celery, turnip/swede, lemon rind and paprika and cook for 3 minutes, stirring well.
3. Pour in stock and tomatoes and bring to the boil, then add chicken breasts and spring onion and reduce to a simmer.
4. When the chicken is cooked (cut the fattest part open and make sure it is white all through), remove from soup and allow to cool slightly, then shred into strips and add back in.
5. Season to taste with cracked pepper and sea salt and serve immediately, topped with fresh sprouts.

ENJOY! 

xT

Know your food!

I love food. I love the smells, tastes and preparation involved in cooking, but most of all the satisfaction of creating good food that is good for our health. I love sourcing fresh ingredients, meeting producers and learning where our food comes from. And I love my home. I'm so lucky to live in beautiful little Hobart; a city buzzing with delicious eateries, amazing local produce and good coffee.

I guess I've always been a bit of a foodie, thanks to my parents' encouragement to cook and help in the kitchen and to certain celebrity chefs that I (secretly) preferred to watch after school over cartoons or soaps. But I think its also in my blood - I'm lucky to have grown up in a family rich in culture who all have a passion for delicious, wholesome food. 

My grandmother on my mother's side grew up on a farm in northern Japan and helped her mother plant, grow and prepare food all year round. They had no fridge so they prepared and ate as they needed, staggered the planting of their vegetables so they would last, pickled and preserved food to feed them through winter and swapped produce with neighbours so they all had a bit of everything. 

As much as I romanticise about this way of living off the land, it is in reality incredibly hard work and an entire way of life. With modern lifestyles and fast paced environments, most of us in the Western world have small living spaces, work long hours and no longer live from our garden's bounty and fattened backyard pigs. Whilst we are lucky to have more freedom and comfort, we are also surrounded by constant temptations and marketing ploys - cheap restaurants, drive-through takeaway joints and supermarkets filled with food containing numbers for ingredients. The bombardment of advertising, health fads and 'magical' diets that usually focus on overtly sexual and 'perfected' body shapes makes many of us question ourselves and how we should actually behave in relation to our food.

Because of this, many people have negative experiences and associations to food and can be far removed from where our food comes from or what is actually in it. So much choice, ease of living and access to all sorts of food from around the globe can be incredibly overwhelming and make it difficult to know where to start.

That is why understanding and appreciating where the food you eat has come from and cooking from scratch is so fantastic - it gives you ownership over your food and greater satisfaction. This also goes for growing your own food, no matter how little - it is amazing how rewarding it feels to simply grow your own parsley in a pot! And for those who don't think they can cook, don't be scared of messing up or making mistakes (trust me, I have made plenty) - the more you cook, the more confident you get in the kitchen and the easier it becomes.

As a nutritionist, I am passionate about feeding our bodies with wholesome, real food that prevents disease and enhances our quality of life. I believe its never too late to spin around bad habits and attitudes and learn how to cook, love what you eat and love your body. It may take time, but we do have a choice on what we eat and eating wholesome foods doesn't need to be expensive, as many people believe. 

So go and get inspired! Buy a cookbook, visit the farmer's markets, talk to producers, try a new vegetable, watch a cooking show, plant some herbs, invite a friend over, buy a good knife or if it all seems too much, ask for help!

xT