Noodles, potato and carrot cooked in a broth made with chicken gizzards, onion and celery. Twenty-five minutes, four servings, and the plainest thing on a Colombian weekday table.
About the gizzards
A pound of chicken gizzards goes into the water at the start with the half onion and simmers for 45 minutes before anything else arrives, then another fifteen with the vegetables.
That was not what the recipe used to say. It gave them five minutes, or twenty in total counting the vegetables, and a gizzard is the muscle a bird grinds its food with: dense, and rubbery until it has had a long slow simmer.
Forty-five minutes is what they need and it is now what the recipe gives them. A pressure cooker cuts it to about twenty from the moment it whistles. The broth is better for the long simmer as well. Chicken pieces instead of gizzards need nothing like as long.
The noodles will not wait
A hundred and twenty grams of pasta in a litre of water is a lot of pasta, and it keeps drinking long after the pot leaves the heat.
Served immediately it is a soup. Twenty minutes later it is noticeably thicker, and by the next day it is a bowl of soft noodles with almost no liquid around them.
If the soup has to sit or if you are making it ahead, cook the noodles in a separate pot and put them in each bowl as you serve. It is the only way to keep both the pasta and the broth.
A plain weekday soup
There is nothing complicated here: water, gizzards, potato, carrot, onion, a piece of celery and noodles. It is the kind of thing that gets made on an ordinary Tuesday in Colombia, cheap and quick and filling.
Cutting the vegetables is most of the work, and the carrot can be grated instead of diced if you would rather it melted into the broth.
Where the onion goes
Half an onion sits on the ingredient list and appeared in none of the original six steps. It belongs in the pot at the start with the gizzards and the water, flavouring the broth as it cooks.
The piece of celery goes in later, with the vegetables, and both can be lifted out before serving.
More soups
- Pasta soup — the same idea with a different shape.
- Chicken and rice soup — rice instead of noodles.
- Chicken vegetable soup — without the pasta.
- Meatball soup — the other weekday standby.
Noodle Soup FAQ
Forty-five minutes on their own before anything else goes in. A gizzard is a hard-working muscle and it stays rubbery until it has simmered a long time. The recipe used to give them five minutes, which left them tough. A pressure cooker does the same job in about twenty minutes from the moment it whistles.
Yes, and they need nothing like as long. Gizzards are what a Colombian kitchen uses because they are cheap and make good broth, but thighs or drumsticks work in the same soup.
When the recipe says, with the potato and carrot, and not before. A hundred and twenty grams of pasta keeps absorbing the litre of water it is sitting in.
The noodles drank it. This happens between the pot and the table if the soup stands, and it happens overnight for certain. If it has to wait, cook the noodles separately and add them to each bowl.
Either. The recipe allows both. Grated disappears into the broth and colours it; diced stays as pieces you can find with a spoon.
Flavouring the broth. It goes in as one piece rather than chopped, which means it can be lifted out before serving if you want.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 liter water
- 120 g noodles
- 2 potatoes (peeled and cut into cubes)
- 1 carrot (peeled, cubed or grated)
- 1 pound chicken gizzards (washed and cut into small pieces)
- ½ onion
- A piece of celery
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
Notas
Instructions
- Wash the chicken gizzards and cut them into small pieces.
- Put them in a pot with the water and the half onion and simmer for 45 minutes, until they are tender enough to bite through easily.
- Meanwhile, peel the potatoes and the carrot and cut them into cubes or pieces, as you prefer. The carrot can be grated instead.
- Add the potatoes and the carrot to the pot along with the piece of celery, the noodles and the pepper, and cook until the potato is soft, about 15 minutes.
- Turn the heat down, taste and adjust the salt, and serve immediately.
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