CHICKEN SOUP WITH RICE (OR
NOODLES)
As a hardcore Colombian from the mountains of Bogotá,
my wife claims that she could live on soup alone. My
naturally inquisitive mind is plagued by the strong urge to
rigorously test this claim, but every time I decide to force
her to embark on the first day of the rest of her liquid-diet-
based life, the part of me that loves her intervenes and
reminds me that life just wouldn’t be as fun without her,
soup or no. She, coming from a rice-eating country, prefers
rice in her soup, while I, coming from New York, prefer the
superior egg noodle. I have generations of Jewish
grandmothers on my side, but she has the trump card of
Maurice Sendak—though I do like to point out that had
there been more words in the English language that rhyme
with noodle, Sendak may well have written a different set of
poems entirely. As it is, “In January, while I doodle/swirly
patterns on my poodle” doesn’t have the quite the same ring
to it as the original.
That said, we do eat a lot of soup around here, and once
you’ve got a great chicken stock to work with, you’ve won
99 percent of the battle for The Ultimate Vegetable Chicken
Soup with Rice (or Noodles). The rest is as simple as adding
the vegetables and rice or noodles. I like to start with a base
of carrots, onions, and celery, then mix it up. Whatever’s in
season, whatever looks best—heck, whatever you can get
your hands on and feel like adding—is the best strategy
here. The key to remember is that different vegetables need
to be prepped and cooked in different ways in order to