Hard times, expensive food, low budgets. Challenges most of us have to face. Since we can’t just leave for a friendlier dimension, we have to try to make the most of what we have. Today I will show you how to make a tasty soup with no more than 1 leu/serving. Buy a chicken back (there are stores selling pretty ok chicken pieces). That will be around 2,5-2,8 lei. Wash it, clean it and put it in a pot. Next to it, put carrots, parsley roots, onion, garlic, basil leaves, parsley leaves (with a rich flavor) and fresh thyme. Plus, one quince. This bunch of ingredients will cost you 6-7 lei if you go to the market place and find someone willing to negotiate or at least willing to sell the vegetables by piece.
Cover the vegetables and the chicken with water, add a teaspoon of salt and a few peppercorns.
Let it boil on very low heat for two hours. Skim it if you’d like, if you don’t, just don’t skim it (skimming is a sort of gesture inherited from our parents or grandparents, understandable when we want to make a consommé or a base we want to transform into sauces or jelly we want as clear as possible, otherwise you should know that by skimming you are simply removing proteins, thus nutrients – I’m not saying you shouldn’t skim or strain soups if this how you like them, I’m just trying to explain to you the reasons behind doing that :)).
When the soup is done, boil some noodles.
After straining the soup, add the noodles, some of the vegetables that boiled in the pot, a slice of fresh quince (amazing flavor), fresh basil leaves.
It’s not such a big deal, but it’s the closest thing to the grandparents’ Sunday soup you can get with just the change you forgot in your wallet.
Stay healthy.
Special thanks to
Oana Bodnariuc, Authorized Translator
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facebook.com/oana.bodnariuc