Sasha's Kitchen: Stone Soup and Thoughts on Hunger

The idea of stone soup comes from an old fairy tale or folk legend in which hungry strangers trick a small town into giving them food by making them "stone soup". Although I am not quite sure where this folk story originated from, I remember a book that my parents read with me as a child called Stone Soup by Marcia Brown. When I think of this story today, it reminds me that there are many people, including children, in the United States today who do not have enough to eat. Inspired by this story, I decided to write about the book and about hunger in general, while sharing my basic family recipe for chicken soup.

Pot for the soup
3 small round stones (more symbolic, if you are making this with kids)
1 small kosher soup chicken (get from a local kosher butcher)
fill pot with water -----------------use to make chicken stock
carrots
celery
salt
pepper
alphabet pasta letters
onion
bay leaf
thyme
parsley

You are supposed to remove the entire chicken after making the stock, however, I prefer to leave in pieces of the chicken in the soup - gives it a more rustic feel for me.

Just remember when you're cooking that there are still a lot of less fortunate people out there, especially right here in New York around the holidays, so if you can donate to a good organization like City Harvest that can help.

Sasha's Kitchen: Stone Soup and Thoughts on Hunger