3rd February 2026

As I have no doubt mentioned before once or twice (!) we eat a lot of chicken pasta soup and I always stash chicken carcasses and bones in my freezer ready for chicken noodle soup at a moments notice. Going through various cookbooks last month I a recipe by Eleanor Ford in The Nutmeg Tail for Egyptian ‘birds’ tongue soup (chicken broth with orzo) that I had missed previously.

I followed the recipe and ingredients, quite interested to see how the cardamom, cloves and mastic would change this staple in our house.  The spice taste was really quite subtle but with a little back-note which was so nice. Cooking the orzo in butter until golden and toasty was a new touch to me but added such a nice dimension.  The whole thing was absolutely lovely and so needed after the absolutely awful day I had had.  This really helped restore me and left me feeling much better.

It is such a delicious meal and really so easy, I put the lid on the broth and left the broth slowly cooking most of the afternoon, the spiced chickeny broth smells floating up to my office. I then finished this off after work and loved that it took no effort at all - especially for the wonderful flavours it had.