Kick It Immune Boosting Chicken Soup - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 roasting chicken, skin, bones, the whole deal
2 large onions
10 garlic cloves
10 g fresh gingerroot (use to taste)
2 chilies (discard seeds for less heat)
2 stalks celery
2 carrots
1 cup diced sweet potatoes (or both) or 1 cup parsnip (or both)
1 cup shiitake mushroom
1 cup soup mix
pearl barley
red kidney beans
split peas
black-eyed peas
green lentil
1 1/2 - 2 liters chicken stock

Preparation

Dice onions, chilli, ginger and sweet potato/parsnip.
Dice or crush garlic.
Slice celery, carrots.
Wash chicken inside and out and place into a large stock pot.
Put all ingredients into the pot and cover with chicken stock.
Bring soup to the boil, then simmer for approx 2 - 2.5 hours or until the chicken falls of the bone.
(I use a pressure cooker to cook mine for approx 1 hr).
Pull chicken out of soup and discard all bones and large clumps of fat.
Return chicken meat to soup.
For a variation, try adding a ham hock to the ingredients as well!
This chicken soup does have a bite, but it it will sweat out all those nasty cold bugs!
Enjoy!