healing chicken soup {a recipe}

A summer cold has hit our house, and I just happened to buy a one-pound bag of ginger root. Not because I knew what to do with that much, but because I wanted a tiny piece to grate into my tea. I could only find it already pre-bagged in one pound bundles and it was cheap, so I figured what they hay. After a few internet searches that left me feeling uninspired I came across this one and inspiration struck.

Here's what I did:
First take
1 onion, sliced
2 stalks of celery, chopped
about 8 ounces of ginger, sliced (with skin still on)
4-5 small gloves garlic, crushed
whole chicken, rinsed
1-2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
Then add
1 cup of rice
2-3 carrots, sliced diagonally
1 small zucchini
1 cup of frozen peas
a handful of baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste

Add all the first ingredients to a 6 quart stock pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer, covered, for a 2-4 hours depending on how early you think to start dinner. Take soup off heat and remove chicken, allowing to cool. Pour broth through a sieve and discard ginger and veggies. Remove the meat off the bones and shred. Bring strained broth back up to boil and add sliced carrots, rice, zucchini and spinach. Add chicken and serve when veggies are tender and rice is cooked (about 20 minutes). I didn't have a sliced fennel bulb on hand but feel that if I did, adding it would have been perfection. Also, I only added back about 2/3 of the meat and saved the rest to toss on top of salads for lunch throughout the week.