Chicken and Vegetable Soup

After making a batch of Hot and Honeyed Chicken Wings, I had a handful of left over chicken wing tips.  Not wanting to waste them, I decided to try some Chicken and Vege Soup.  I hadn't made this soup before, but soups are very easy to make and always taste delicious!

Ingredients
Chicken - Use whatever you have.
As many different vegetables as you have available such as:
Potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, onion, celery, carrot.
Tin of white beans
Garlic
Oil for frying
4 Cups of chicken or vegetable stock

In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat.  Fry onion and garlic until soft.  Add rest of vegetables and stir well for a few minutes.  Add stock and white beans, bring to the boil.  Reduce heat and simmer covered for about 1 hour or until all vegetables are soft.  If you used chicken wing tips you can remove them now or if you used anything else with bones such as legs, you can remove the meat from the bones, roughly chop and stir through soup.

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

Winter is here, and what's the best food to eat when it's cold?  Soup of course!  The good thing about soups is that you can put just about anything into them and they are so easy to make.  One of my favorite soup recipes is this Pumpkin Soup.  The combination of spices just seem to go so well with the pumpkin.

Ingredients
Olive Oil for frying
1 Onion
2-3 Hot Chillies
1 tsp crushed Garlic
1 tsp ground Cumin
1/2 tsp ground Coriander
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1 kg Pumpkin, cut into small pieces
4 Cups Vegetable Stock
Shredded Coconut

Finely chop onion and chillies.  Heat oil in a deep soup pot and fry onion, chillies and garlic until soft.  Add spices and stir for another minute.  Add pumpkin and stir to coat with spices.  Add stock and bring to the boil.  Simmer, covered for 30 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft.  Use a hand blender if you like a smooth consistency or just use a potato masher if you prefer a chunkier soup.  You can thin the soup if you like with some milk or cream.  Stir in a handful of shredded coconut and serve with some hot damper!