Chicken, rice and lemon soup

I made this soup for the first time yesterday. I tasted it when my friend Jodie made a batch, it was delicious and I begged for the recipe. I didn’t quite cook the vegies long enough, so it had lots of little bits of carrot in it, rather than being a smooth consistency. But it still tasted great. I recommend letting it sit for a while to let the lemon integrate. Jodie says: “A Greek friend taught me how to make this soup. It really is amazing for getting rid of the flu!  If you eat this when you are sick you will feel better the next day. I always make enough to freeze so when you are sick you have some in the freezer. You can halve or quarter the amounts if you want a small batch. ENJOY!”

Chicken, rice and lemon soup

INGREDIENTS: 1.5kg chicken fillets, 2 cups white rice – medium grain; 8 lemons; 1 whole head of garlic; 6 eggs – room temperature; 1 whole onion; 4 carrots; ½ bunch celery – including some of the top leaves.

METHOD: Fill a large stockpot with water, place whole chicken fillets in water, add the whole onion peeled, the garlic peeled, salt and pepper to taste. Let it boil for an hour. Add the carrots whole and the celery cut into sticks and add at least half of the top leaves as well. Simmer on high for 3 hours. Take the chicken out and set aside on a plate. Leave the soup simmering and take out the carrot, celery, onion and garlic into a strainer. Let the vegetables cool a little and in the meantime, chop the chicken into shredded pieces as small as possible. Put all of the vegetables into a food processor and blend until a fine pulp. Mix the vegetable puree back into the simmering soup mix. Add the 2 cups of rice and stir occasionally to make sure it does not stick. Once the rice is cooked, add the chopped chicken back into the soup. Juice the 8 lemons and put in a bowl Beat the eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer until very fluffy. VERY slowly, add the lemon juice to the egg mixture. One ladle at a time, add some hot soup to the eggs and lemon until you have about 6 ladles of soup added to the eggs and lemon, this helps it prevent curdling. Then turn the soup down to a very low heat and VERY slowly add the rest of the lemon and egg mixture. Stir it on a low heat for a few minutes and it is ready to serve. Add more salt and pepper if required.