Fresh, Frozen, Instant Healing Soup (lemon-chicken-vegetable)

Hmmm, strange name for a soup, right? 

Well. . .I love to cook for people, and recently someone I'm close to, lost his father, very unexpectedly. We found out that in regard to helping, by cooking for them, what they preferred are freezer meals. To freeze a big pot of soup would require a lot of freezer space. I don't have it here, and don't know what their freezer situation is. To get around this, I decided to prepare everything as usual, but leave out the ingredient that comprises the most volume. The broth. So, for this, I won't use homemade bone broth.

Sauté the following in a 4 quart pot:

2T single source EVOO
3 sliced-chopped carrots
2 big sliced-chopped celery stalks
2 med. onion - chopped
3 lg. cloves garlic - minced
1/2-1t black pepper
1t chicken seasoning

Let this sizzle a bit, turn down the heat, add 1/2c water and 3-4 bay leaves. Cover and let steam-sauté for 5-10 minutes. While this is happening, separate the chicken meat from the skin and bones from 2 rotisserie chicken leg quarters. I put those (skin and bones) in a bag in the freezer with a carcass of a previously roasted chicken. 

Take a big handful of fresh spinach. Pinch off the stems and pack it in a tight bunch. Carefully slice this into thin strips. This is what the French chefs call chiffonade. Next add the zest of one lemon and 2T juice, about half the lemon. Season with the broth base—I used about 3T. Stire, the get the temperature back to a low simmer, cover and remove from the heat. 

Don't let the vegetables cook more than half way. They'll finish cooking later, when the noodles and water are added.

When everything is cooled a bit, put it into an airtight container and into the freezer. Mine fit nicely into a quart size container.

To turn this into 2½ to 3 quarts of soup, put the 32oz. frozen cube of soup into a big pot. Add 1½ to 2 quarts of water, two cakes of gently broken millet-brown rice (gluten free) ramen noodles, and simmer, on very low heat, until everything thaws, heats through and the noodles are cooked al dente.

I'm really glad I thought of this technique. It's one I'll use again in the future. . .Lin