Mollie Katzen's No-Chicken Soup With Vegan Matzoh Balls

We all know about chicken soup for the soul, and how this chicken-infused broth has healing properties. These properties have been scientifically proven, but I am not here to discredit science. My version (borrowed from Mollie Katzen's wonderfully inspiring book, Still Life with Menus) is completely vegan, but still tastes like it could heal a broken spirit. Or at least, put a small band-aid on it.

If you love nourishing brothy soups, you might also like to try my vegan Hot and Sour soup, my rich vegan French onion soup or my Caldo Verde too!

This soup is very flexible in that you can add or remove veg if you don't fancy. For example, the original recipe had parsnip, which I love roasted, but I didn't like the idea of the sweetness in the soup, so I omitted it. I added a few more carrots, and you can never have too much garlic!

I discarded most of the veg after you strain the stock, but I did eat the sweet, soft garlic that had melted down perfectly. If you prefer to be more frugal, feel free to strain the veg out so that you have a nice clear stock, then add it back in for a bit more of a filling soup.

• vegetables: carrots, celery, mushrooms, onions and lots of garlic
• turmeric
• salt and water

See recipe card for quantities.

Place all the soup ingredients in a large pan and bring to a gentle simmer for an hour and a half

Meanwhile, prep the matzoh balls. Ingredients: matzoh meal, plain vegan yogurt, salt and parsley

Place all the ingredients for the matzoh balls in a bowl

Mix until you have a stiff dough. Chill for at least half an hour.

When thoroughly chilled, roll into balls, then into a little more matzoh meal, and drop into a pan of simmering salted water for 40 mins

Drop the poached matzoh balls into your warmed soup and serve

Store the strained soup in a covered container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Would also freeze beautifully.

If I'm making the soup for the next day, I like to cook a couple of freshly chunked carrots to drop in the soup.