Gutloving Chicken and Pumpkin Soup

We’ve been on an adventure to heal Ashton’s gut for a couple of months now since he’s got a few food intolerances that he’s had since birth. To do this we’ve enlisted the help of the GAPS diet, and slowly but surely we’ve been working our way through the introduction phases introducing new foods at each stage. On stage 1 the only foods allowed are those that are easy to digest - slow cooked meats, some very well cooked vegetables, lots of animal fats and some homemade meat stock. This soup is one that I’d make regularly for him while on stage 1 and he’d eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Now that we’re on the later stages I still cook it often as it remains a favourite for him, and it’s super cheap and easy for me!

Ingredients

1L chicken meat stock (made by simmering 1kg drumsticks in 1L of water for 1hr. Pull out the drumsticks, strain the liquid - this is your chicken meat stock)

1kg peeled and chopped pumpkin

1  chopped onion 

2 chopped carrots

2 chopped zucchini (peeled and seeded if your gut is very sensitive)

Cooked chicken (I use the meat and skin off the drumsticks that I used to make the broth)

Method

Make your broth - chicken drumsticks in a pot, cover with water, you want them fully immersed, bring to the boil and simmer for 1hr. Remove chicken from the pot and strain the leftover broth to remove any fine bones.

Now, return the broth to the pot and add in all the other ingredients except the cooked chicken and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 25min or until the vegetables are soft.

Add the cooked chicken AND CHICKEN SKIN, heat for a minute or two, then purée using a blender or food processor.

Serve.

Note: when the soup cools it may turn into a jelly. This is a good thing! The jelly is all the gut healing properties from the stock, the jellier, the better. If you really want to up your meat stock game add some chicken feet in with the drumsticks.