This is by far my favourite way of nourishing my little ones. Introducing it into your repertoire will give you endless opportunities as you can add so many fabulous nutrients to this already beneficial dish.
For starters, work with a homemade chicken broth, a good macrobiotic sea salt and gut friendly noodles. Most children will warm to this simplicity and from there you can start introducing garlic, grated ginger, lemon, sesame, shiitake mushrooms, green veggies, and even slow infuse astragalus and goji berries for a Chinese medicinal variety. I usually offer a side order of nori for all it's sea vegetable greatness, namely iodine which is instrumental in a well functioning thyroid.
A good quality broth will have plenty of gelatine, you will be able to see this when your broth cools and appears like a jelly. It contains glycine and proline which are amino acids with anti-inflammatory properties and which are essential for connective tissue function, making this dietary staple a gut healing superpower! The amino acid profile is also vital to the function of a healthy immune system and is otherwise often depleted in our modern diets.
Chicken broth recipe:
1.5 kg chicken
3.5 litres of water
1 teaspoon macrobiotic sea salt
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Wash the chicken and place in a deep pot with the water, sea salt and ACV. Bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer, uncovered, removing any froth that drifts to the top. After 20 minutes, remove the chicken and gently take off the breast - saving it for lunchboxes or later meal options. To be sure the breast is properly cooked through, the juices should run clear. Return the rest of the chicken back to the pot and simmer, covered, for 4 - 6 hours. Cool, strain and store in the fridge for immediate use or freeze for future meals. Any left over meat can be pulled apart and used in later meal options or served with the broth.
My favourite noodles:
Spiral foods are easily sourced and do wonderful gluten free noodles such as buckwheat or quinoa udon
Most health food stores stock seaweed noodles which are a fabulous option
I have also come across brown rice and pumpkin noodles which are lovely and fine (not to mention gut friendly and nutritious)
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