This is the second week in the October Fest Carnival of Super Foods at Kitchen Stewardship, and today’s theme is “broth.”  Head on over there (after you finish reading here!) and check out some new recipes.  It’s not just about soup, either – any recipe that uses meat broth is fair game.

Two of my favorite uses are for adding flavor to rice, and making super-quick-and-easy chicken soup.  (I know, chicken soup – boring, right?  But, hey, it’s one of my quickest throw-together meals, and it’s healthy, to boot!)

First up, rice.

When I went to Mexico on a missions trip years ago, one of the best things about the trip was the food. The ladies at the church we stayed at cooked for us every single meal, and every one was absolutely fantastic!  (And not spicy, contrary to popular stereotype.)  Well, the night they tried to make American spaghetti was less-than-great, but all of the Mexican food was wonderful. 😉

Unfortunately, I don’t speak Spanish (yet!), so I wasn’t able to get any recipes, or any significant cooking hints.  I did, however, pick up one thing – the use of broth as a flavoring agent for rice.

This is not really a recipe.  It’s easier than that.

When cooking rice (or anything starchy that one typically cooks in water which is absorbed by the cooking food, like or grains, or couscous), simply substitute broth for the cooking water.  I usually use chicken broth.  This adds a great extra flavor dimension, whether or not you add other seasonings in addition to the broth.

And chicken soup.

My other favorite use for broth is that old standby – chicken soup.  But this is my lazy meal.

Whenever split chicken breasts go on sale, I simmer a family-size package in my slow cooker all day, then strain and freeze the broth and shred and freeze the chicken.  (This usually gives me somewhere around 10 cups of each.)  I also chop and freeze carrots when I have a big bag that we’re not going to use up quickly enough otherwise.

When I want soup, I throw some frozen broth, chicken, and carrots into a saucepan with McCall’s all-purpose seasoning, and bring it all to a boil.

Then I toss in a few handfuls of whole wheat alphabet pasta, let it cook until the pasta is done, and serve.

This is so easy, and I nearly always have all of these ingredients on hand!  (In a real pinch, you can use msg-free chicken broth powder but, of course, that kind of defeats the purpose of using the broth for its health benefits!  Canned broth would probably be an in-between option.)

If you have some cooked rice on hand, you can add it to the soup just long enough to heat through, instead of the pasta.  Other veggies can be added, or the seasonings can be switched out or added to.

If I’m not in a hurry, I like to add some fresh chopped garlic at the beginning, because it’s tasty and healthy (and adding it at the beginning lets it get good and soft as the noodles cook).

So my basic formula is frozen broth + frozen chicken + frozen carrots + whole wheat noodles, but a little bit of imagination allows for a lot of variation.  (Although it’s nourishing, this isn’t especially filling, so serve bread on the side.)