Chicken and Summer Corn Soup (gluten free, crock pot)

Chicken and Summer Corn Soup

G-man asked to make chicken soup. Specifically, he wanted make soup with chicken, sweet corn, tomatoes and beans. That kid is onto something... Every bite tastes like summer. Tomatoes and kidney beans add a touch of cheerful color and the sweet corn kernels have a slight crunch. Our son may only be four years old, but he sure has great ideas in the kitchen!

4 chicken (Free range makes better soup. Trust me.)
1 large, ripe tomato
6 ears corn, kernels sliced off
2 cups cooked/ 1 can drained red kidney beans
2 tbsp parsley
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
salt to taste

Place the chicken thighs into the crock pot and cover with water. Cook on "high" for 2-3 hours, until chicken is cooked. (All night on "low" would work if you are prepping the soup before leaving for work.) Take the chicken from the pot,  Bone is and skin it, placing the bones in the freezer for future bone broth. Chop up the chicken and put it back in the pot.

Ad the chopped tomato, beans, corn, and all seasonings except the salt. Allow the soup to cook for at least another two hours on "high" or all day on "low."

Before serving, salt the soup, a little at a time. Half a teaspoon for the whole pot was enough for us.


I shared this recipe with these natural food recipe link-ups: Traditional Tuesdays, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Fat Tuesday,  the Hearth and Soul Hop and Empty Your Archives.

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Mazto Ball Soup (Knaidlach)

Over the weekend, we roasted a chicken. Stealthy Dad carved it to serve, and immediately put the carcass into the crock pot to make stock.

I covered it with water and added some sad-but-not-ready-for-compost vegetables from the fridge. Thanks to the idea from on the Traditional Foods blog, I also added a couple tablespoons of vinegar to break the bones down, releasing more minerals into the broth. A day and a half later, I strained the solids from the broth. After pouring it back into the (rinsed) crock pot, I added some light seasoning to the broth: salt, ginger, sage, thyme, and dried onions.

The decision of what soup to make was not an easy one. Nearly every culture has a version of dumplings and broth. It came down to two: Won Ton or Matzo Ball. I can get decent Won Ton soup down the street, so chose to make the latter.

Matzo Ball Soup 

Homemade Chicken Soup

The days are getting shorter, the nights chillier, and everywhere you go there are people sniffling. It is time for a nice big bowl of chicken soup.

It is also time to get out the crock pot and make your own.

Reading labels of some popular brands of canned soup for sodium content is a shocker. One cup of Progresso Roasted Chicken Garlic contains 690mg/cup. Campbell's Select harvest Light Savory Chicken and Vegetables contains 650mg per cup, while their Healthy Request Vegetable contains 410 mg/cup. A single cup of Campbell's Chicken Vegetable soup, the classic soup with the red label, contains 890 mg of sodium!  (Mmmmm, mmmm.... not so good?)

Homemade Chicken Soup