RECIPE | Chock-full-of-veggies chicken soup

Serves: 8

Difficulty: Easy, 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 large free-range chicken

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

30ml (2 tbsp) olive oil

4 large leeks, roughly sliced

4 stalks celery, roughly sliced

200g pumpkin, peeled and roughly chopped

4 turnips, roughly chopped

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

Juice of ½ a lemon

Large chou-chou (chayote marrow), roughly chopped

Large handful spinach, roughly chopped

150g fresh corn kernels

Chopped fresh coriander or flat-leaf parsley, to serve

Method:

1. Place the chicken in a large stockpot and pour enough water over to cover. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the stock and set aside.
2. Heat the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and sauté the leeks and celery until tender.
3. Add leeks and celery to the chicken stock, along with the pumpkin, turnips, sweet potato, canned tomatoes and lemon juice. Season and simmer for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
4. Add the chayote, spinach and corn.
5. Remove the skin and bones from the chicken, break the flesh into pieces and add to the soup. Simmer for a further 5 minutes. Serve scattered with fresh chopped coriander or parsley.

MEET THE COOK

Janet Diack's Brightside Farm in the Magaliesberg supplies her son James's restaurant, Coobs in Parkhurst, with sustainable produce, meat and charcuterie. "I've always dreamed of being a farmer and have discovered that as a woman, farmers are prepared to accept anyone who loves the land - and don't see each other as competition. As sustainable farmers, we find organic farming is much tougher when things go wrong. There's no getting out the big chemical guns."