Part Three | When You're Exhausted After Work, Make a Bowl of Soup
Some days, you're so tired you don't even want to think about eating.
You come home, take off your shoes, drop your bag to the side, and just want to sit down.
This is not the time to make anything complicated.
There's no need to wash a pile of pots or spend an hour standing around in the kitchen.
Just make a pot of soup.
Toss in the ingredients.
Wait for them to cook slowly.
And take a moment to catch your breath, too.
Today, I'm making a very simple pot of Corn, Chicken, and Vegetable Soup.
It's a complete meal in one pot.
There's meat, vegetables, and broth.
Pair it with a bowl of white rice, and you've got a wonderfully comforting meal.
【Ingredients】
1 chicken thigh
1 ear of corn
1/2 carrot
Cabbage, to taste
2–3 slices of ginger
About 800–1,000 milliliters of water
A pinch of salt
If you like pepper, you can prepare a little white pepper.
【Instructions】
First, cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
Cut the corn into sections.
Slice the carrot.
Tear the cabbage into small pieces.
Slice the ginger and set it aside.
If you don't want to deal with too many ingredients, you can use frozen vegetables instead.
When you're eating alone, you don't need to wear yourself out just to make the meal “look impressive.”
Second, put the chicken, corn, carrot, and ginger into a pot.
Add the water.
Bring it to a boil over medium heat.
Once the water starts boiling, skim off some of the impurities floating on the surface.
Turn the heat to low.
Third, cook for about fifteen to twenty minutes.
Once the chicken is fully cooked and the sweetness of the corn has slowly infused the broth, add the cabbage.
Cook for a few more minutes.
Season with salt at the end.
If you like pepper, sprinkle in a little white pepper.
Turn off the heat.
And just like that, a pot of steaming-hot chicken and vegetable soup is done.
I actually love this kind of cooking.
Because it doesn't require you to keep watching it.
Once you've put the ingredients in the pot, you can go take a shower.
You can change clothes.
You can sit on the couch and zone out.
You can even do nothing at all.
After a while, go back to the kitchen.
The rice might not be ready yet.
But the soup has already cooked itself for you.
Sometimes, the hardest part of living alone isn't having nothing to do.
It's having to do everything yourself.
When you're hungry, you have to figure out what to eat.
When you want a meal, you have to buy the groceries yourself.
When you get home, you have to cook for yourself.
After eating, you still have to wash the dishes yourself.
So every once in a while, it's okay to be a little kinder to yourself.
Choose the simple option.
Don't expect every meal to be perfect.
If all you want to do today is make a pot of soup, then make a pot of soup.
If all you want to eat today is a bowl of rice, then eat a bowl of rice.
Life isn't a competition.
No one is going to decide that you're doing poorly just because you only made one dish today.
What really matters is this:
Are you taking good care of yourself?
When you're eating alone, sometimes what you need most isn't an impressive dish.
It's just a little bit of the feeling that says, “I'm willing to take care of myself.”
So if you're really tired today,
don't go hungry.
And don't just grab something and call it good.
Make a pot of soup.
Let a little fragrance slowly fill the kitchen.
Let the steam slowly rise.
Then serve yourself a bowl.
Sit down.
Take a sip of hot soup.
You'll find that some kinds of exhaustion don't have to be solved right away.
Sometimes, all you need to do is eat a real meal.
And that alone is already a way of taking care of yourself.
You're tired today.
That's okay.
Have a sip of soup first.
The rest can wait until after you've eaten.