Restorative Soup Recipes

Steps:

• Fill a large pot with 14 cups water, chicken pieces, backbone, wings, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil. Skim foam, reduce heat, and gently simmer for 25 minutes. Remove chicken (except wings); continue simmering while you discard skin and remove meat from bones. Cover meat and refrigerate; return bones to pot and simmer 3 1/2 hours more.
• Strain broth through a fine-mesh sieve and discard solids, including bones and wings. Skim fat and transfer broth to a clean pot. Add onions, carrots, celery, ginger, mushrooms, and soy sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until vegetables are very tender, 25 minutes. In the last 3 minutes of cooking, stir in in the bok choy.
• Cut or tear reserved chicken into 3 cups of bite-size pieces. (You'll end up with an extra cup of meat; save it for a salad or a sandwich.) Add to broth, along with cayenne and lemon juice. Heat through, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper; serve.

Steps:

• Clean the chicken. Put in a large stockpot with enough water to cover. Bring to boil. Add onions, sweet potato, parsnips, turnips, and carrots. Reduce to simmer. Cook for 1 1/2 hours. Keep removing the "foam fat" from the surface as it accumulates.
• Add parsley and celery. Cook another 45 minutes.
• Remove chicken from pot and save for another recipe. (The chicken is not used further for the soup.) Keep the chicken broth in the pot.
• Put all the vegetables in a food processor. Process them until they can pass through a strainer, then return them to the chicken broth. Season with salt and pepper.