#frozen veggies from costco and water left to simmer

[radiohimalaya]

Noodles babyyyy

[puncivilian]

Daaaaaaamn, making soup is really that easy, huh?

Couple of months (ish?) ago I snagged a precooked chicken at Costco because why not, you're already doing a whole big shopping trip and you aren't gonna want to make food after getting it all home and unpacking it, and even if you are planning on taking advantage of the food court on the way out it doesn't hurt to have a precooked chicken for sandwiches or smth, right?

So we parked it in the fridge at home and whittled away most of the choice pieces over the next couple days, then I threw the whole of what was left into a freezer bag along with the half of an onion I had from whatever else I made that I knew I wasn't gonna use before it molded.

Enter today, where my pockets are especially thin in light of the work season just having begun and also that whole mess where I flew to a see a friend and got given the metaphorical middle finger while I was already doused in Life's Own Diarrhea Shit, then flew home in a depressed fugue and discovered I misunderstood (I can only hope) and thus overpaid the fucking airport parking, but seeing as my flight home had been delayed three hours and I needed to drive three hours at the ass-crack of night to get to the bed I was longingly thinking of, I paid several hundred Canadian dollars and turned my mind to my more pressing problem of figuring out a gas route as quickly as possible

I digress.

So today I still don't have access to my credit card on account of the fees payment taking time because banks are shit operate in snail time, and I'm looking in the freezer and see the frozen chicken and onion. Today my brain was nice and didn't balk at the prospect of Doing A Task, perhaps because of the novelty, idfk, I wasn't questioning that shit. I pulled it out along with the biggest pot I have and dumped the freezer bag contents in the pot, filled it mostly full of water, then set it on the stove over medium heat. Added some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Then I left it the fuck alone for the next four hours because I had to make my lunch and then work. Occasional checks to make sure it was simmering and not boiling over or some shit.

After work I popped over to the local store and splurged on some pearl barley and carrots and parsnips. And thyme, a container of dried, so I'll have it on hand in the future.

I strained out the solids from the stock by pouring it into a sieve over a big bowl, then poured the liquid back in the pot and set the sieve over a small bowl and picked out all the meat I wanted, adding it to the pot. Then the solids went in the garbage and I reused the small bowl for the veggies. Speaking of, we saved the peels from the carrots and turnips in a freezer bag for future stock :). The carrots and parsnips were cut into bite sized pieces. I measured out less than a cup of pearl barley and added it to the soup, brought it to a boil, then simmered for 20-30 minutes before adding the veggies and some pasta. The thyme was added at some point along with more of the other spices.

It's delicious and filling, and I'm frankly impressed by how well it came together. Threw in a little lemon juice at the end too and Idk if that's to everyone's taste but it's certainly mine