One of my grandmother's specialty soups (among many!) is her herbal soup - strong and full of wonderful nutrients. However, she handpicks all her herbs, and boils them according to her measurements. We, the younger generation in the family, don't like the boiled herbs, but sometimes they end up in our soup bowl.
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| These mixes are relatively cheap. |
The solution: pre-packed herbal soup mixes! Yeah, it sounds like cheating, but it's actually not. Many companies make them, and there are different varieties depending on which brand you buy. It may sound dodgy, but it's exactly the same as boiling herbal soup the old-school way, except it's more fuss-free~
Usually the instructions for cooking and the ingredients required are written on the back of the packet. The one I used required 1.5L of water, and an entire chicken, I think. Requirements for the soup vary from packet to packet, but you could also add in your choice of veggies, meat, etc.
What we usually use:
- 4-5 whole chicken drumsticks
- 2 large bunches of fresh enoki mushrooms
- 4 stalks of fresh eryngii mushrooms
- 1 packet of fresh oyster mushrooms OR 1 packet fresh shimeji mushrooms
Or whatever we can get, but this is what we usually get for the soup. Depending on your taste you could add some salt to it, but we consider this a really healthy, salt-free meal (unless someone wants to add some salt, of course).
For clearer soup, skim off any foam from the surface of the soup every once in a while that comes from the chicken marrow and/or the mushrooms. This not only clears away any scum, it also scoops away any excess fat that might have melted off the chicken.
Although you do not cook it personally, I think it is good that you still eat herbal chicken mushroom soup. You grandmother should be proud of you as you are fond of eating healthy food, even though not in the way she cooked it. It surely is a healthy food considering the variety of mushroom in it, as each has different health benefits.
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