Light Feel Good Soup

I am back from a month of amazing time with my family and I am already missing home. 4 weeks of shopping, good food and quality time with my family are over. Now it is time to get back to reality, work and busy, busy days.

It is also the time to enjoy the last days of summer and recreate some of my favourite dishes from back home. I wish I could be there longer. It is such pleasure to cook for my family and enjoy meals with them. How exciting it is to introduce them to new flavours they have not tried before. And how amazing mom's food tastes if you have not had it for few years. I cooked some Mexican dishes which are not too common in Poland. Some of the ingredients were hard to find but all in all I was successful in satisfying their taste buds. And I devoured every dish prepared by my family.

Not to mention amazing food shopping which I already miss...how sad does a shelf with yogurt look here. So empty and so little choice! I took a picture just to prove how much more selection there is over there.

And ice cream desserts. I think Europe is a leader in those. Instead of taking a break from shopping to eat a hamburger people in Poland take a break over some coffee and ice cream desserts that look beautiful, taste even better and you will have a hard time finding them here. Unless in my kitchen ;) My favourite place to go was Grycan.

And chocolate, so much of it, that it is a sin almost. Nowhere in the world is chocolate as good as it is in Europe.

Another favourite of mine were family gatherings. Usually when you are invited for dinner, you get dinner and maybe dessert here. Back home you get dessert and coffee first and believe me, not one kind of cake but a whole variety of sweets, then dinner and then dessert again! How amazing is that. I need to treat my guests the same way ;)

I want to talk about some polish dishes here and hopefully you will be inspired to try new flavours as well. Some of my favourite meals there were cheese, herb and ham stuffed chicken breasts served with fresh string beans covered with melted butter and breadcrumbs as well as cooked potatoes and a side of a coleslaw flavoured with a bit of vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar and oil. Homemade dumplings cooked and served just with onions fried in oil. Meat stuffed dumplings wit bacon and onion, soups, pyzy (yeast based dough dumplings steamed) served with pork and gravy with beets...these are just few of my favourites but there is much much more.

For now I decided to recreate my mom's veggie soup, light with fragrant broth, it will be perfect for a cold day and if you need to go on a diet after vacationing.

Feel Good Veggie Soup

First you need to start with a good base, which is the broth. I used a piece of chicken, with the bone in and cooked it in some water with fresh parsley (with stems), then flavoured the broth with some chicken broth cubes and Vegeta spice. After that, chop some cabbage (half a small one), 1 carrot, half a cauliflower, 2 tomatoes and half a bag of frozen mixed beans (green and yellow string beans) Cook until soft and season with salt and pepper and maggi. You can serve it with a spoonful of sour cream or lime juice and pieces of chicken.

It will make a hearty lunch or dinner.

You can add different vegetables here, leeks and kohlarbi taste nice with that combination as well.

Enjoy!