Green Papaya & Chicken Soup

This recipe was recommended by my good friend Kat. She said this green papaya and chicken soup is delicious and nutritious, papaya being full of Vitamin C, carotenoids and antioxidants.

Kat even bought me the papaya and didn't allow me to pay for it. It was a large papaya, weighing more than 1kg, so Kat suggested that I use half of it for the soup and stir fry the other half with dried shrimps. Hmm....never ever stir fried papaya nor made papaya soup before. Anyway, before the papaya ripened, I hastened to make the soup, and true enough, it was delicious!

I didn't stir fry all of the other half of the papaya because I wasn't sure what it was gonna taste like... I mean I've never ever thought of the papaya doubling as a vegetable aside from it being a fruit! To make a long story short, the stir fried papaya was absolutely delicious and I regretted not cooking the whole half of it.

Green papaya & chicken soup

Ingredients

800gms green (unripe) papaya

1 free range chicken, about 600gms (remove skin and trim fat)

5 1/2 cups water

salt to taste

1. Peel papaya, remove seeds and cut into 2-inch cubes.

2. I bought the free-range chicken already skinned, so I only had to trim off the fat.

3. Bring the 5 1/2 cups water to a boil, add in papaya and chicken. When it comes to a boil again, lower the fire and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Off the flame, add salt according to taste.

Serve hot with a dash of pepper, if desired.