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-dietbased 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 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 maximize their soupworthiness SOUP VEGETABLES: BEST STRATEGIES M aking any simple, broth-based vegetable soup is easy as long as you know how to prepare the various vegetables and when to add them This chart describes how to deal with the most common soup vegetables VEGETABLE PREP COOKING TIME Carrot Peel and cut into ½–inch chunks 20 minutes Cauliflower Separate into 20 minutes ...maximize their soupworthiness SOUP VEGETABLES: BEST STRATEGIES M aking any simple, broth-based vegetable soup is easy as long as you know how to prepare the various vegetables and when to add them... various vegetables and when to add them This chart describes how to deal with the most common soup vegetables VEGETABLE PREP COOKING TIME Carrot Peel and cut into ½–inch chunks 20 minutes Cauliflower