Beverly's Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Cook like a peasant, eat like a king!

Women in France nearly always maintain a "mother," some form of starter ingredients kept on the stove waiting for additions to create soup.   When it is time to make soup, broth is added or in Beverly's soup, an even more immediate and simpler technique is to add a piece of chicken, pork or beef with water added to make a simple stock. A delicious soup is the inevitable result for both.  

"When I'm running low on soup, I put a piece of chicken in a pot of water until the meat is cooked, which I then remove from the bone and shred. Sometimes, I keep the pot in the refrigerator for a few days until I feel like adding more ingredients--greens, some carrots, beans--whatever I have on hand.  For added flavoring, I add a bit of tomato paste, garlic, and onions and various herbs (chives, marjoram, mint, rosemary, sage, parsley and oregano) from my balcony garden. Really, this is determined by how low I am on ready to eat soup.  I make enough soup to freeze in meal size containers."