Chicken Soup for the World

I was recently thinking about my Buby (Yiddish for Grandmother) and how she taught me about how being present for others could be as healing as serving them a pot of homemade chicken soup. Throughout my life I had chicken soup served so many different ways. My mother would either make it with matzo balls, hers were floaters and not sinkers, or noodles. She normally used wide egg noodles. As I grew up and aged, I began eating chicken soup served so many ways. I have had it with rice, orzo, ramen noodles, wild rice, tortellini, ravioli and with no grain or pasta at all. It was when I was writing a poem about being chicken soup and was looking for an image of a bowl of chicken soup that I saw so many images of chicken soup and realized that the healing power of chicken soup is a universal one, and not just one I grew up eating with my family.

It is not just the chicken soup, it is the love poured into the preparation of it. Growing up my mother taught me how to make chicken soup from scratch. I remember patiently waiting for what she called the scum to float to the top and I would skim it all off. She taught me that the secret ingredient to add to every dish I made was love. She once told me the scum that I was removing was taking away anything which might harm those I loved and that I was to think about how much I loved people with each movement.

It is interesting how chicken soup has become this metaphor for something soothing and comforting. It is supposed to evoke memories of love, family and tradition. That is in party why Jack Canfield called his series Chicken Soup for the Soul. Those feelings and need to be loved and comforted are a global need, something so universal that just about every culture has their own way or ways of making chicken soup recipes to show comfort and love in their own way.

Below are just a few ways of making this soup that might make you and your family feel loved and comforted.

Matzo Ball Soup