Girls Gide

It usually starts with a stuffy nose and a little cough and before you know it you have a cold. We all know how bad you can feel when you are sick, the fever, the stuffed nose, and the loss of appetite. When you are sick nothing tastes nice and making food is just not a priority. The one thing that I’m able to eat when I’m sick and what actually makes me feel better is this Italian Penicillin Soup. It is a fairly easy recipe and pretty much foolproof, it does take a little bit of time to make it but you can make more and freeze it or eat the next day.

Ingredients

• one large carrot
• 2 stalks of celery
• one large onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• chicken bouillon (I like to use the pre-made one from the grocery store)
• 2 teaspoons of Italian herbs
• orzo half a cup
• olive oil
• Parmesan cheese
• black peper

Recipe

1. Roughly chop the onion, celery and carrot. It doesn’t have to be very small or pretty since it will be blended at the end. Peel the garlic cloves and cut them in half. There is no need for perfect of fine chopping in this recipe which make it super easy.
2. Add some olive oil to a heavy cast iron pan, add the onions, and sauté them lightly. Afterward, add the celery and the carrot to the pan. Turn down the heat to medium heat and add the garlic in as well. Make sure that you don’t burn your garlic since this will lead to a bitter taste. After adding the garlic immediately add your chicken stock (if you are vegetarian or vegan you can also opt for a vegetable stock). Now let the stock with the vegetables simmer on a low heat for an hour.
3. After an hour and when the vegetables are soft take all the vegetables out of the stock. You can use a sieve to remove all the vegetables form the stock. Now add the vegetables to a blender/food processor and add a little bit of stock to the blender/food processor. Blend until smooth and make sure there are no lumps. Now add the blended vegetables back to the stock and give it a stir. I like to now also add some Italian herbs for even more flavor.
4. I use 2 liters of chicken bouillon and it serves about 6 people. So You can now choose to add the orzo to the big pan all at once and make a lot of soup. But what I like to do is add some of the soup in a smaller pan and add the orzo to the smaller pan and just make enough for the amount of servings that I need.
5. In a smaller pan, I add the soup and the orzo. Make sure the heat is on low/ medium heat. It takes about 9 minutes for the orzo to cook. The orzo will soak up the soup but some of it will also evaporate. So, if you don’t have enough liquid add a bit more soup. After nine minutes your orzo should be done and you can plate your soup. I like to add some freshly grounded black pepper to mine, along with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
6. Now your Italian Medicine Soup is done it is the perfect hearty and comforting recipe for when you are feeling a bit under the weather.