Madhouse recipe : Sunday night soup

What do you do with the leftovers from your Sunday roast? If you've had chicken, here is the perfect way of making another tasty meal from, well, pretty much nothing, really. I used to bundle all the leftover meat, potatoes, vegetables and gravy up into a pie, but this is even more frugal because it makes the most of the chicken carcass too.

Sunday night soup

ingredients :

1 or 2 chicken carcasses

2 potatoes

3 carrots

2 onions

(or throw in whatever leftover veg and potatoes you have from the Sunday roast)

2 bay leaves

a chicken stock cube (and/or leftover gravy)

salt, pepper, a shake of curry powder

a glug of crème fraîche (optional)

Put the chicken carcass (or two - we've taken to buying two small chickens which works out cheaper than one big one) in a large pan.

If using raw potatoes, carrots and onions, add them now. If using leftover cooked veg, add them at the end. (I usually do a bit of both.)

Cover with boiling water and toss in a couple of bay leaves. Simmer for about 15 minutes. 

Get another large pot and pass the whole lot through a sieve.

Put the cooked veggies back in the pot. Sift through (wait until it's cooled down a bit so you don't burn your fingers) picking all the last bits of chicken off the bones and adding them to the pot too.

Add any leftover gravy, crumble in a stock cube and give it all a good stir. Bring back to a gentle boil.

Use a stick blender to liquidise everything. Season with salt, pepper and, if you like, a bit of curry powder. For extra creaminess, stir through a glug of crème fraîche, but if you've put in enough potato, you shouldn't really need it.

Eating a bowl of this on a Sunday evening is a great way of clearing out the fridge and it's so warming and satisfying that you really understand the origins of the expression chicken soup for the soul !

This is the ultimate recipe for using up leftovers from the Sunday roast so I'm adding it to this month's #KitchenClearout linky.