My husband's Grandmother from Syria made soup similar to this. Very hearty and great for those who don't feel well.
Very bland and very disappointing. A lot of work and not much flavor.
Read MoreDelicious for a cold, rainy day...but it takes time.
Very bland and very disappointing. A lot of work and not much flavor.
When made as instructed, it's a bit of a mild soup. There is nothing wrong with the recipe itself, though, it merely is a bit lazy on the prep work. If you want the soup to be spicy, you will need to grab an herb grinder, and grind the clove, cinnamon, peppercorns. If you want it to be more pungent and aromatic (oniony/ garlicy), you should chop the garlic and onion. The smaller you chop anything you put into a soup, the more flavor from it you'll get. I also heartily recommend adding some more carrots and fresh cilantro into the final soup for color. Or if you want it to be pretty, put fresh cilantro on top of each bowl and let people stir it in. I made the entire thing by deboning a roast chicken, making stock instead of broth, and then draining it back into the pot with chicken, rice, extra carrots and additional cilantro. It's not JUST what's in the pot that makes the food taste good- but how you fix the recipe. This is one of those cases where things can become bland really fast.
I tried to do a crock-pot, vegetarian version of this recipe, which turned out badly because it ended up more like gruel than soup in texture. Not the recipe's fault, though. My daughter loved the taste and ate it enthusiastically despite the texture. I might try this again on the stove, with a different vegetarian substitute for the chicken.