From the BeInkandescent Heartful Cookbook Series: Your What’s Next Journal

A Note from Hope, publisher, BeInkandescent Health & Wellness magazine — When I was a little girl, my mother’s mother, Pearl — my Mommom — always knew how to heal what ailed me. Her famous chicken soup was a recipe handed down by her mother, and her mother’s mother, and her mother’s mother, from the shtetl in Kyiv. I think all that love was poured into every pot of soup.

My sister, Kim Katz Alvarez, grew up to be an award-winning chef and shares recipes for a delicious holiday dinner in this month’s Heart column — named our daughters (Anna Paige and Emma Pearl) after this beloved woman who died when I was 10. In our kids, and with this soup recipe, her love lives on.

“Prepare this family whenever you are feeling punk — mind, body, spirit, or soul,” Kimmy says. “We believe it can also help heal a broken heart.”

Scroll down for this heart-warming recipe! And please add your own special touch to your pot of soup. Don’t like onions or celery? Don’t add them. Love matzah balls? Let me know, and I’ll send you her recipe for the kind that float vs. sink. One of Pearl’s greatest gifts was loving people as they were, and that meant letting them express themselves in life, art, and soup.

The gift that keeps on giving: We always whip up a big pot at the first sniffle of a cold — and especially on the first night of Channukah. Trick: Keep adding broth to the pot, as well as more chicken and veggies, it’ll last all eight nights! — To your health!

Why is chicken soup so good for you? Click here for insights. 

Yields: 10 servings — or more (if you keep adding broth, this soup can last days)

What you’ll need:

• 1 (3 pounds) whole chicken (or just the parts, if you prefer)
• 4 carrots, halved
• 4 stalks celery, halved
• 1 large onion, halved
• water to cover
• 1 T each salt and pepper (my mom also likes to add onion powder)
• 1 bulb garlic (shelled)
• 1 T chicken bouillon granules (to taste)

Here’s how:

1. Put the chicken, carrots, celery, onion, and garlic cloves in a large soup pot and cover with cold water.
2. Heat and simmer, uncovered until the chicken meat falls off the bones (skim off foam every so often).
3. Take everything out of the pot.
4. Strain the broth. Pick the meat off of the bones and chop the carrots, celery, and onion.
5. Season the broth with salt, pepper, and chicken bouillon to taste, if desired.
6. Return the chicken, carrots, celery, and onion to the pot, stir together and serve.