Clean the leek and cut the tops into small pieces. Save the white part of the leek for later.

Peel the onion and cut it into large pieces. Do the same with the celery.

Cut the tops off the parsnip, parsley root, and 2 of the carrots, the peel can stay on as the herbs will not be eaten anyway.

Rinse the chicken and remove excess fat and any leftover organs from the inside.

Place it in a large pot and add water until it covers.

Bring to a boil and skim off the frothy scum from the surface with a slotted spoon. It is important to be thorough with this, as the soup will be cloudy if the impurities are not removed.

Add the herbs, peppercorns, and bay leaves and let everything simmer on low heat for about 1 1/2 hours.

Take out the chicken and set it aside. The skin should be removed, and it should be picked. The meat can be used in various dishes, such as a chicken pie or chicken in asparagus/tartlets.

Continue cooking the soup with the herbs for another 30 minutes.

Pour the entire mixture through a sieve and discard the vegetables.

Then pour everything through a muslin/cheesecloth (that has been soaked), so you remove the impurities. Now you have a clear soup.

I prefer to continue cooking it for another 30 minutes as the flavor becomes a bit more intense.

If there are only two of you, you can take a liter of the soup aside and continue cooking it. The rest can be put into containers of 1-2 liters and possibly frozen for later use.

The soup now tastes like nothing because there is still no salt in it. The salt binds the flavors together, and you can actually first taste how good a soup you have when you add salt.

10 minutes before serving, peel the last carrot and cut it into small pieces.

At the same time, cut the white part of the leek into very thin slices.

Add both to the soup and cook for 5 minutes, then add the meat and flour dumplings directly from frozen. This will cause the soup's temperature to drop, so it stops boiling.

Heat the soup for a couple of minutes to just below boiling point. Remove from heat, as the flour dumplings should not be boiled.

Serve the soup immediately, preferably with bread or soup horns.