Simple Chicken Soup Recipe for a Kitchen Witch on a Budget
Because I love food and I'm also cheap. This is basically just my regular easy chicken soup recipe but with the magical associations included. It'll feed you for days.
The Long (But Tastier) Way
One of those discount whole chickens from the grocery store (my boyfriend calls it a "used chicken")
Whatever veggies in your kitchen are starting to look sad and need to be used before they go bad (I recommend having carrots and celery in that mix tho)
Some extra celery/carrots for the final product (can come from the Sads if you need... pick the healthiest-looking parts.)
Pasta of your choice (I like penne)
A stockpot and strainer (another big pot should work too, but stockpots are best for holding everything/making the most at once.)
Salt, pepper, preferably dill as well + whatever other seasonings you want.
Take your used chicken, strip all of the meat from it, and put the meat aside. Put the carcass in the pot.
Add all of your sad vegetables to the pot. No need to be fancy with it, no need to peel anything. Shop an old onion into 4ths and add it skins and all. Leaves can stay on any celery. Chuck in some garlic, why not. I've added an old sweet potato before. Leeks. Rosemary. Whatever. Go be free.
Add some salt + pepper, cover the entire thing with water, bring it to a boil and then immediately turn the heat to low. Cover it most of the way.
Go do something else. Forget about it for at least four hours. If you want, you can occasionally go up to it and skim any foam off. Everything is steeping and blending, so the longer it goes the better it gets. (Remember the water will cook down though, so don't leave it forever.)
Cook your pasta al dente and set it aside at some point.
Once you're ready, strain the broth into another vessel and discard your sad broth vegetables. Thank them for their service.
Put the broth back in the empty stockpot and bring to a boil. Chop your happy vegetables to whatever size you want to eat them at. Add any vegetables like chopped carrots that need to cook longer than other veggies. After a few minutes add the rest. Once everything is at a good level of This Won't Feel Weird to Eat, put it on way low again!
Add everything else. That means salt, pepper, dill (I like dill. Add too much dill.) seasoning powders, chicken meat, and cooked pasta. Steep it for a little so the broth flavor can soak in, but you don't have to do it for as long as before.
EAT IT! You have soup now! Yay! Eat a bowl now and save the rest for later. It'll last you a while. (Pasta will get bigger/softer over time but that's fine, it's still good.)
Boil some water. Add chicken bouillon cubes, salt, pepper, dill/whatever seasonings, and a tiny splash of oil. The oil helps it look/feel more authentic without needing to steep the chicken carcass.
For even faster broth, you can even use boxed chicken stock and skip the bouillon. I find chicken broth tastes kinda different and gross, but it'll work in a pinch and you might not mind it as much as me.
Naturally, whatever unique vegetables you add will have their own correspondences, so I'll just list the recommended base ingredients:
Chicken: Lasting love, household harmony, abundance, luck, prosperity and general well-being
Celery: Lust, mental/psychic abilities, clear-headedness/focus (especially for decision making)
Carrot: Lust again, abundance, creativity and psychic awareness
Dill: Luck, money/employment, protection, knowledge and decision making.
Chicken Soup Itself: Health and vitality is the big one (probably obviously.) It's basically folk penicillin. I think it also carries associations with love (especially familial) and household harmony for exactly this reason. Based on the other associations, I could also see it being good for helping make important decisions with a sound mind.
Enjoy! Let me know what you think!