A Nourishing Chicken Noodle Soup for Sick Days

Kendra Vaculin
·6 min read

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Photo by Elliott Jerome Brown Jr, Food Styling by Mieko Takahashi, Prop Styling by Stephanie De Luca

What does “feel-good food” mean? It depends on who you ask. That’s why each month our Feel-Good Food Plan—with delicious recipes and a few wild cards—is hosted by someone new. This month test kitchen editor Kendra Vaculin writes about steamed squash, cooking as stress relief, and more.

My toxic trait is that I always want to cook. The morning after I’ve hosted a dinner party. The minute I get home from an international red-eye. On my own birthday, despite my friends and partner begging me to “please relax” and “sit down.” I never learned how to meditate and I’m bad at journalling; for me, the act of cooking is the ultimate balm.

I understand that this mindset puts me in the minority. Most people (sanely!) aren’t interested in tackling a cooking project when tired, stressed, or depleted. But I find that even on my most brain-dead days being in the kitchen is what feels most healing. Soup itself can’t cure jet lag or do my laundry for me, but cooking soup can briefly alleviate whatever’s weighing me down—and eating one certainly doesn’t hurt.

Of course, I have my limits. When I’m not firing on all cylinders, I am not building an intricate layer cake or pleating individual soup dumplings. Instead, I’m making warming, simple, one-pot recipes that fill me up in more ways than one. Like this homey twist on chicken noodle soup, featuring fall-apart kabocha squash and a big scoop of miso. Cooking the tiny pasta in the same Dutch oven where you built your broth keeps things mercifully easy, while the starch it releases builds up a velvety body. A better dish because it’s lazily made? To me, nothing feels better than that.

January’s Feel Good Recipes

These recipes show up in my rotation when I’m looking for the comfort of a home cooked meal without too much effort. They’re easy to commit to memory and don’t require rigid precision, so I can alter them based on what I have on hand and put down my phone after reading the instructions. Are you also interested in gentle culinary tasks that yield flavorful results? Read on.

A soup that’s equal parts nourishing and simple

The only prep work involved in this Miso Chicken and Squash Soup With Tiny Pasta is cutting half a squash and slicing kale, which is enough to feel like I’m doing something but not enough to turn me toward takeout. The method is just adding things to a pot of boiling stock—I can do that even when my brain is running on empty. The result is my idea of healing and wholesome: steamy and flavorful, with a luscious body from the broken down squash and red miso, and packed with greens (for health) and pasta (for sanity).

Miso Chicken Soup With Squash and Tiny Pasta

Kendra Vaculin

A one-pot porridge to top as you please

Testing deputy food editor Hana Asbrink’s Dakjuk recipe in the test kitchen was my first introduction to a technique I have since used countless times (including in the soup above): poaching chicken breast in a pot of water, which you then use as a subtly-flavored broth. Hana turns hers into a quick rice porridge, flavored simply with soy sauce and sesame oil; feel free to top with whatever vegetables you have on hand, a fried egg, and/or a big scoop of chili crisp.

Dakjuk

Hana Asbrink

Eggs to ruin you for soft scrambled

I thought steamed eggs, in all their silky lusciousness, were a restaurant thing, not an at-home thing—until I made chef and photographer Jessie YuChen’s Silky Steamed Eggs With Mushrooms. The nesting doll set up of a bowl in a steamer basket in a pot with a lid may seem like overkill, but you really aren’t dirtying much, as you’ll serve the finished eggs directly out of the bowl you cook them in. Prepare to never go back to soft scrambled.

Silky Steamed Eggs With Mushrooms

Jessie YuChen

Creamy pasta without any dairy

I remember when Sarah Jampel was developing this pantry pasta several years back. She theorized that mashed beans, of all things, were the ticket to a luscious vegan cream sauce—and as usual, she was right. The result is an absurdly easy weeknight dinner that will change the way you look at a can of cannellini. Don’t skip the nuts on top, though you can use any variety (I always sub pecans in for walnuts). And if you can find chewy, chubby pacheri pasta, like in the recipe photo, definitely grab a bag or three.

Pantry Pasta With Vegan Cream Sauce

Sarah Jampel

More Feel-Good Finds for The Month

A perfectly gentle television show

Would you like a bit of conflict-free content to consume while eating your soup? I must recommend The Makanai on Netflix, which is comfort food in television form. The lovely series follows two best friends who move to the Gion district in Kyoto to train to become geishas. While one clearly has the poise and control required for the gig, the other discovers she is better suited to become the house makanai-san, or live-in chef, instead. Our heroine makes a seemingly endless series of craving-inducing meals, like chewy udon soup and simmering pans of oyakodon, to set out for the girls of the house. I am desperate for a second season.

An idea for the other half of your kabocha squash

If I had an enormous kitchen instead of my dinky Brooklyn situation, I would collect donabe. Japanese clay pots that can be used for a variety of cooking tasks, they’re as beautiful as they are functional, and ancient in their design. I have two: a smoker and a steamer, the latter of which I would recommend to anyone with the space to store it. Use it to gently cook vegetables, fish, chicken, and more—including the remainder of the hearty squash from the miso chicken soup recipe.

$.00,

A cozy treat to transition you out of the holidays

January has the winter weather of December but none of the holiday sparkle, which can feel like a huge bummer. But the reality is, even if you’re leaving festive-flavored pies and cookies behind, there are still plenty of cozy treats to keep you going. I personally live a treat-forward lifestyle! This month my favorite is milk tea Kit Kats, which are (a) wearing plaid, (b) taste just like a cup of sweetened creamy black tea, and (c) best enjoyed alongside an actual cup of tea for a milk-tea inception moment.

Nestle Kit Kat Mini Chocolate Milk Tea Flavor

$9.00, Amazon

Next Time

February’s Feel-Good Food Plan will be hosted by Karen Yuan, who’s sharing a sunny breakfast for cloudy days. Until then, I hope there’s a warm bowl of soup in your future. Happy January!

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit

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