CHICKEN VEGETABLE SOUP WITH DILL AND CUMIN

Steps:

• Put chicken pieces in a large stew pan or soup pot.
• Leave the onion whole for easy removal or cut it in large dice if you want to eat it in the soup.
• If you like, tie the thyme sprigs, parsley stems and bay leaves together with kitchen twine or wrap them in cheesecloth for easy removal.
• Peel potatoes and add to pan.
• Add onion, carrots, celery, thyme, parsley stems and bay leaves.
• Pour in enough water to cover the ingredients by a couple of centimeters and add salt.
• Bring to a boil.
• With a large spoon, remove the foam that collects on top.
• Cover and cook over low heat for 45 mins.
• ,occasionally skimming off the foam and fat that collects.
• Add squash, mushrooms, garlic, cumin and pepper and bring to a simmer.
• Cover and cook over low heat for 15 minsutes or until chicken and vegetables are tender and soup is well flavored.
• Remove herb bundle or loose herbs.
• Cook noodles in a large pan of boiling salted water about 7 minutes or until just tender.
• Drain well.
• Keep the noodles in a separate container if you plan to reheat the soup; otherwise they soften too much as they sit in the soup.
• Before serving the soup, thoroughly skim the fat from the broth.
• The cooler the broth is, the easier this will be.
• The simplest way is to refrigerate the soup so the fat solidifies on top and can be easily removed.
• Otherwise, skim the fat from the soup's surface several times with a large spoon.
• Remove chicken pieces and discard their skin.
• Leave pieces whole or pull or cut meat from bones; return chicken to soup.
• For a lighter dish, you can reserve part of the meat for other uses.
• Reheat soup if necessary.
• If noodles are cold, bring them to room temperature or reheat them in a covered dish in the microwave.
• Add dill and chopped parsley to soup.
• Taste and adjust seasoning.
• Serve the soup in fairly shallow bowls.
• Add noodles to each bowl when serving.