This is a very comforting, delicious soup. The flavours are simple, but it does take quite a bit of preparation. There’s a lot of fine chopping, as well as making some bread dough and noodles. I cheated a little bit with the dough and the noodles but it was still great.
INGREDIENTS:
- 250ml olive oil
- 100g bread dough (I made the dough for one loaf in the bread maker, pinched off 100g and then nade a loaf of bread with the rest)
- 80g clarified butter or ghee
- 80g carrot, finely diced
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 300g boned chicken thighs, diced (I actually just put in 6 whole chicken thighs with the bone in, and it was great, making sure each serving had one thigh in it)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 80g green lentils
- 1 litre of water
- 1 litre of chicken stock
- 200g potatoes, finely diced
- 80g egg noodles (I used linguini, but the original recipe states these should be home-made)
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 bunch fresh coriander
METHOD:
- Make little flat dumplings with the bread dough. I made a long thin sausage, and then pinched off bits about the size of a small marble.
- Fry the little balls of dough in hot olive oil for around 5 minutes each. Remove them to drain on paper towels or a tea towel.
- In a large saucepan, heat the butter over a medium heat. Fry the carrot, onion and garlic for around 3 minutes, then add the chicken, salt, white pepper and green lentils in that order, stirring them in as you go. Cook for another 5 minutes.
- Pour in 1 litre of hot water and bring to a simmer, and cover the pan. Cook for 20 minutes.
- Add the 1 litre of chicken stock, bring to a simmer again, cover the pan, and cook for 10 minutes.
- Add the potatoes and cook for 10 minutes, still covered
- Add the noodles, and cook with the lid off for around 7 minutes
- Add the fried dough balls and cook for 3 more minutes.
- Remove from the heat, stir in the turmeric, and then serve garnished with chopped coriander.
This is not quite a soup, not quite a stew, messy to eat, and very comforting.