Thursday, May 23, 2013

Brittany's Best Chicken and Veggie Noodle Soup



Hello, friends!

In Portland we recently had a stretch of good weather. Like, really really good weather. It was in the mid-70s for over a week. But the spring rain started again and it’s been pretty wet. Yesterday all I could think about was curling up with a big bowl of chicken noodle soup. We had all the ingredients and I had some time before Spanish class, so I knew it was the right thing to do. Also, Jonathan had a dentist appointment over on the waterfront and I knew he’d be soaked from riding in the rain to and from there and would probably like some soup to warm up with!

It’s been several months since I’ve made soup and, I gotta say, last night’s soup was AMAZING. Probably some of the best soup I’ve made. It’s jam-packed full of healthy stuff AND you can clean out your fridge! And I get to eat some leftovers for lunch today, which I’m pretty excited about. So get to making this soup!

All ingredients are approximations, as per my usual soup-making. :o)

6 medium carrots
3 chicken tenders (about 1.5 breasts’ worth)
1.5 diced onions
Last bit of almost-bad kale (small handful’s worth)
Two large fistfuls of spinach
¼ cup of diced mushrooms
½ cup of frozen corn
¾ cup of frozen peas
1.5 cups of uncooked whole wheat penne pasta
1 tbsp of chicken stock concentrate
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp of thyme
2 tsp of chili powder
2 tsp of cumin
2 tsp of turmeric (turmeric in EVERYTHING – it is good for you!)

Pre-heat your pot on medium heat and throw in a couple good-sized blobs of coconut oil. You could also use olive oil. When it gets warm, toss in your diced onions. While those cook a bit chop your carrots into small pieces. After the onions have cooked for five minutes or so, toss those carrots in there and stir them around. The chicken I used was frozen still, so don’t worry about thawing your chicken. Put the chicken on top of the onion and carrots and fill the pot with water, leaving about two inches of room at the top. Turn the heat to high and let everything boil for five minutes or so. Toss your spices, salt and pepper, and the chicken stock concentrate in now. After everything has boiled a few minutes, turn the heat down and let it simmer for a while. It’s going to start smelling really good!

After it’s simmered for a while, take the chicken pieces out and shred them. (Do I have to tell you to make sure they’re fully cooked? Don’t be dumb and get chickenella.) Throw them back into the pot and turn the heat back up to medium-high. Toss the noodles in there and let them cook. How long do whole wheat noodles take to cook? I cooked mine for maybe 11 or 12 minutes? When the noodles are done, toss in the mushrooms, kale, spinach, peas, and corn, and let it cook for a few minutes.

BAM! This was a super easy and relatively fast recipe. Plus, it made a ton of leftovers, which is always awesome. So go now and make this soup!

4 comments:

  1. Yum... I love a really good chicken noodle soup. My kiddo has been sick this week so we have all been going towards the easy comfort foods.

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    1. Yeah, there are a lot of people sick right now! Sorry to hear your kid has the crud, too. :o(

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  2. Turmeric really should be included in everything. :) I've been making a turmeric, cinnamon, agave drink recently that (kind of) mimics hot cocoa (if you've never had hot cocoa before) in an effort to get more turmeric into my diet.

    Will have to try a non-chicken version of your soup! (Maybe mushrooms instead?)

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    1. Ooooh, can you share the recipe for your drink? That sounds interesting and delicious!

      I think upping the mushrooms would be delicious! You could easily use the veggie stock concentrate. I bet some shiitakes would be yummy and super good for you, but any mushie would be good!

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