chicken happiness soup

Chicken Happiness Soup

I wanted to call this Advanced Winter Soup, or Anti-Schadenfreude Soup, but in either case, it's yellow, it's pretty, and it will cheer you up!
(This is adapted from Yellow Happiness Soup in the Nigella Lawson cookbooks. )
You'll need:

Some leftover chicken meat -- about one piece worth
2 large or 3 small yellow squash
zest and juice of one large lemon
1 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon cumin
3 T olive oil
4 cups chicken stock (recipe follows, but boullion cube works, though it should probably not be substituted with veggie boullion)
1/2 cup white basmati rice
little handful of roasted pine nuts (optional)
sea salt

1. Wash squash. Don't have to peel them. Cut them in slices and then mince (or use food processor).
2. In a good sized pot, saute the squash and lemon zest with the oil for about 5 minutes or until soft.
3. Add in tumeric, cumin, lemon juice, some salt, and then the broth.
4. Bring it to a boil and add the chicken and rice. Let simmer for 10-20 minutes or until the rice is done.
5. This soup seems to be better warm that hot. Cold is good too, the way cold pizza is good, but not exactly!

CHICKEN BROTH
If you have a leftover whole chicken or parts of one, this is a good way to make broth and you can do it a few days in advance.

Put chicken bones/ carcass (hopefully with a little meat on them) in big pot. Cover with water. Put in 2 stalks of celery chopped, a carrot chopped, and the yellow skins of two onions, pinch of herbal seasoning (Italian seasoning/basil/oregano/bayleaf), salt, a peppercorn or two.

Simmer for an hour. Let cool. Pick as much meat off the bones as you can and put it in the broth if you want. Put in fridge. When cold, skim off some of the fat.