Not Your Grandma's Chicken Soup

I do apologize for my recent and unexplained truancy. I assure you that I have not been playing hooky rather, I have had what they call in Spanish, gripe. Don't get all worried now, gripe isn't at all as sinister as it sounds, it simply means that I have had a nasty head cold. It has been four straight days of miserable coughing spasms, congestion, and endless sniffling. So, today I decided to put an end to both my blogging sabbatical and my wretched illness by making my, Not Your Grandma's Chicken Soup. This recipe starts off like a traditional chicken soup, but with the help of a few not so conventional ingredients (chili, ginger, and lime) the result is lively and the broth packs a hefty gripe fighting punch.


Not Your Grandma's Chicken Soup

ingredients
3 quarts of water
1 medium sized chicken
4 whole onions, unpeeled
3-4 large carrots, peeled
1/2 cup of chopped celery
3-4 cloves of garlic
juice of one lime or lemon
chunk of ginger, peeled and shredded
1 small zucchini
1 red pepper, Julienne
1 cup of wheat berries (rinsed)
fist full of chopped watercress or spinach
hand full of chopped Cilantro
1Tbsp Red Curry Paste
1-2 canned chipotle chilies, chopped fine or ground,with adobo sauce

1.) Place Chicken and water in pot and bring to boil. Skim foam from the surface of water.
2.)Add Carrots(minus one which will be used in the final product), Onions, Celery, and Garlic and simmer for 2 and 1/2 hours.
3.) Strain Vegetables from the soup and discard, placing the chicken to one side.
4.) As the broth cools, remove the skin from the chicken, remove the meat from the bone and cut up into bite sized pieces.
5.) Remove the fat from the surface of the broth, add wheat berries, bring to a boil, and simmer for 20 min.
6.) Chop up carrots and zucchini and add to broth along with shredded ginger, red curry paste, ground chipotle chili, and lime juice. Simmer for 5min.
7.) Add watercress, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste.

A squeeze of fresh lime juice and avocado is the perfect garnish for this picante soup.