Books & Spoons Recipe for CHICKEN & VEGETABLE NOODLE SOUP

"Baby, It's cold outside..." Yes, the polar nights are just about here. The daylight hours are getting shorter, the temperatures are dropping, even when it is a sunny day, the air is cold and biting. We haven't had snow yet, as I type this post, but it seems like any day now we are going to have that, nearly magical, first snow. 
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For many of us living up north, comfort food is the thing we go for at this time of the year. As long as the comfort food is part of a well-balanced diet, that is just fine. "Everything is allowed in moderation" is a great goal to keep in mind. 

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I am all about soups this time of the year, and the more veggies the soup has, the better. Chicken noodle soup has as many recipes as there are cooks in the kitchen. I add some cabbage to it, to make it more filling. I also added some sweet peas, broccoli, and spring onions, with the traditional carrots and celery, for the flavor and color. The chicken breasts I used was from a day-before roasted chicken dinner, where I on purpose roasted a whole chicken just to use the legs and save the breasts for the soup. 
I cooked the soup in a vegetable broth, with whole black peppers that I removed afterward. A couple drops of hot sauce would have given it a nice kick! 
Do you have a favorite chicken noodle soup recipe, or do you attack a soup duty as a chance to clean the fridge?!
I hope you are staying warm, healthy, and happy!
Until next time
~ Cheers! 

CHICKEN & VEGETABLE NOODLE SOUP

• Half a head of cabbage, shredded
• 4 carrots, sliced or shredded
• 2 strings of celery, thinly cut
• 1 cup of broccoli florets
• 1 cup of sweet peas
• 1 bushel of spring onion, thinly cut
• 2 cooked chicken breasts, cut into small cubes
• Vegetable broth, about 1 liter/1 quart
• black peppers, whole, in a teabag 
• hot sauce, added at service if desired

1. Saute all the cut and prepared vegetable in the soup pot with a dash of olive oil. 
2. Add the cut chicken into the vegetable mix
3. Pour the vegetable broth on top of the vegetable, just enough to barely cover them all
4. Cook until vegetable are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes
5. Add the noodles and let it simmer for 3-5 minutes or until the noodles are done 
6. Remove the teabag of black peppers from the soup 
7. Serve with the hot sauce on the side