Delicious Mediterranean Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

3 chicken drumsticks

1 cup Vermicelli noodles

10+ cups of boiling hot water

1 large or 2 small chopped tomatoes

1 large or 2 small chopped potatoes ( any kind)

1 cup minced fresh cilantro

Mint (for garnish) about 2-3 tablespoons (preferably fresh)

2-3 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste

2 tablespoons of minced garlic

2 teaspoon of paprika, black pepper, cumin, cinnamon

2 teaspoon of mixed spices (if they’re available to you)

3 tablespoons of virgin olive oil

1 large or two small graded onions

Method:

1. Begin by boiling your water in a saucepan

2. If you’re using chicken breast instead of drumsticks, you can choose to give them a rough cut just to get them to be bite sized pieces. You can also do this after the chicken has cooked as well. Massage the chicken with some 1 and half tablespoons of olive oil, plus one teaspoon of each of the spices and some of the mint and cilantro. You can cook it right away if you’re in a hurry or simply pressed for time. But of course, it is always best if it’s left to marinate for at least an hour or overnight.

3. Over a medium high flame, fry the onions and garlic until they just start becoming translucent. If by this time, your water has boiled, bring the heat down and cover it that way it will remain hot when you need it.

4. If you notice you’re pan is sticking feel free to add some water, but grading the onion does generate some natural juices from the onion so it should help.

5. Once the onion and garlic are translucent, gently place your chicken into the pan and let it cook on a simmer for 25-20 minutes. Add one cup of the boiling water, give it a good mix and cover your pan and let the chicken cook.

6. After then minutes check your pan, if it is drying out and starting to stick, add some of your boiling water, one cup to half a cup is perfectly fine. The chicken will need that water to cook and sometimes it dries out due to lack of moisture within the pan.

7. After 20-25 min, add the remaining amount of boiling water, the potatoes, the tomatoes, the spices, salt, sugar, tomato paste, some cilantro and some mint and give it a good mix. Let your stew cook on a medium low flame with the lid on the pan the whole time until both the chicken has cooked and the vegetables have softened completely.

8. Notice in the video that at this point I have another8-10 cups of water boiling in case I need to add any more water to my soup I can easily do that to simply reach my desired consistency and more importantly, provide enough water for all my soup ingredient to cook nicely with lots of moisture.

9. Once the chicken has cooked, you automatically know the vegetables have too, but do a taste test for everything and make necessary adjustments to the level of saltiness in particular.

10. Remove the chicken, debone and cut, or simply cut if you’re using chicken breast and set aside

11. Bring your pan to a full boil, and add in your vermicelli noodles on a high or medium high flame (this will depend and vary on your oven/stove because if you have a powerful stove you’ll want to use medium high instead of high to allow your soup to cook nicely.

12. While the noodles are cooking, blend 2 tablespoons of cilantro, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and the remaining spices and 1-2 gloves of garlic. Blend them all together until they become a smooth paste and add it to your pan while the noodles are cooking

13. 5-7 after you’ve placed your noodles into the soup, you should notice that it is starting to thicken and the noodles are becoming softer. Add in the chicken pieces at this point and do a final taste test.

14. Remove from the pan from the heat as soon as the noodles are very soft in taste, because at this point you know everything else has already cooked

15. Serve it warm with any kind of bread or pizza if you like, and garnish with fresh mint (optional)

Important:

If you are using half the amount of the ingredients in this recipe, follow the exact same steps, you’ll only need to use less water that’s all

Also, you can make this soup with more vegetables, such as carrots, and zucchinis for example and if you prefer to not have them in pieces like me, you can actually, use any blender to blend and almost puree the soup with all the vegetables in it. If you do decide to blend the soup, make sure to REMOVE the chicken first***

Once you’ve finished blending, using a stand blender or a hand blender, place it back to the pot, or sometimes you can blend it in the same pot you’re cooking the soup in. Then you can go ahead and follow the other step with regards to the chicken and the noodles that you’ll be adding to your soup as I mentioned above.

You can use drumsticks, or chicken breast for this soup, and you will follow the exact same steps for both. Only difference is if you are using drumsticks, you’ll need to clean them, and get rid of the bones before adding them back into the soup, whereas if you’re using chicken breast you’ll just take it out and cut it into bite size pieces if you choose not to do that in the beginning of the recipe. Whatever, way you choose to do is completely fine.

You can add your paste at the same time I did in the video or you can follow my recipe. There is no harm in changing it up really, absolutely no harm at all! Bon Appetite!!