I've been making matzo ball soup by making the matzo balls, putting them aside, and then putting them into chicken broth with leftover cooked chicken, cooked carrots, celery, and spices.

Notes: simmer the carrots in chicken broth, in a covered saucepan, for an hour or so. A bit of ginger powder seemed to improve this. (You can cook carrots by microwaving them, but the broth adds flavor. If I wanted to make glazed carrots, I might use the microwave.)

Cutting up a few scallions and adding the green bits, and maybe some of the white bits, to the bowls of soup after serving is a good idea. Yesterday, the white parts of the scallions went into the broth, because onion is good in chicken soup.

Spices: powdered ginger, powdered shallot (Penzey's), garlic powder (I used the Penzey's "toasted granulated garlic." Throwing in a piece of ginger root also works, but fish it out of the soup before serving.

The chicken broth was a mix of "Pacific Foods" brand boxed broth -- this is the one that tastes good and contains neither dairy nor mushroom powder -- and chicken-flavored "Better than Boullion." If dairy is a problem, don't get the "premium" better than boullion, because it contains whey. The one we want is the "organic" chicken soup base.

[cattitude can't have mushrooms, and adrian_turtle has to avoid dairy. I'm almost always cooking for one if not both of them as well as myself.]