From my column in Creative Loafing…

During freshman year of college, I lived off of Kraft mac ‘n cheese and Cocoa Puffs. Not because I couldn’t cook-but because Mother never let us have awful artificially flavored junk food in our household since it would “OH MY GOD, ROT OUR TEETH.” Never mind that our home had chipped lead paint, asbestos in the attic and that I’d wrestle with Brother on the lawn 10 seconds after Dad sprayed DDT.

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These past few days, I needed to cook healthy. Not for me, but for the sake of my children. You see, last week, I had Lasik eye surgery. As any reasonable mother would do, I milked it as far as I could go in terms of slacking on my housewifery duties. Laundry? bah..eyes too dry. Ironing? doc said no heavy lifting. Dishes? need to lay down to put in drops every 2 hours. Vacuuming? nope…can’t see squat after squirting in drops. Best to just sleep in every morning and let Scott handle the kids. It took 3 days before the kids confessed me what they’ve been eating for breakfast….

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I’m cooking once a week for a friend whose family is on a No-gluten, No-sugar, No-soy diet, All-organic diet. Their little 4 yr old daughter has cancer. They are going in this diet to try to prolong her life as much as possible. Sugar feeds cancer, and the Soy interferes with her medication. Fermented soy (soy sauce) is ok, so I’m saved by Organic Tamari! Agave is a sugar derived from a cactus plant, and is processed differently than regular sugar in the body, so we can use that. I’ll be posting recipes - I’m sure there are many other cancer patients on a similar diet. This week, I chose one of the most nourishing, warming dishes to prepare. While soup is easy to prepare, there are multiple steps, including cleaning the chicken by boiling it for 5 minutes.

Healthy Chinese Chicken Soup

All the ingredients I used were organic.

When I purchase a whole chicken for the purpose of making soup, I carve out the precious breast and reserve for another dish.

1 3-lb organic chicken, or 3lbs of chicken pieces
5 stalks green onion, cut into 3″ pieces
2″ piece of ginger, cut into 4 “coins”
2 carrots, cut into large chunks
2 stalk celery, cut into large chunks
salt

1. Using very sharp, heavy cleaver, cut up the chicken into as many 2″-3″ pieces as you can. The smaller the pieces, the more flavor will be extracted into the soup.

2. Boil 1 quart of water in a large stockpot. Once the water boils, add the the chicken pieces. Boil for 5 minutes. Have a large strainer ready at the sink - and dump the entire stockpot into the strainer. The cloudy and scummy water will go down the drain. Wash your stockpot, getting rid of any scum that clings to sides. Rinse the chicken pieces and return to the stockpot. Refill stockpot with 1 1/2 quarts cold water.

3. Add rest of the ingredients to stockpot. Bring to barely a boil and immediately turn down the heat to low. Simmer for 1 1/2 hours, never letting the stock bubble and boil. Periodically check the stockpot and remove any scum on surface. Strain, reserving stock. Congratulations, you’ve just made a very clean and healthy stock! Return stock to the stockpot.

4. Add 1 tsp salt. Taste, adjust salt as needed. Strain the soup, discard ginger and green onion. Using your fingers, shred the chicken meat and return the chicken and vegetables to the stockpot.