After I made Lemon and Garlic Roast Chicken, I made a big batch of simple Chicken Vegetable Soup. It was a chilly day, and I had time on my hands so I made the stock from scratch, and then made a soup with chicken, roasted red pepper, sautéed mushrooms, spinach, and cannelloni beans. When I make soup I make a huge batch and freeze half. It was a great way to get ahead for the week. We had enough for 4 meals in the fridge, and saved another 4 servings in the freezer for another time, solving the inevitable "there is nothing to eat" dilemma everyone faces.
The fun thing about making soup is that you can add anything you want. I was on the paleo diet, so I didn't add any noodles to my soup - but you could. I usually add cheese tortellini to soups, but this time I added some cannelloni beans to give the soup a bit of heartiness. (Yes, I know I am technically not supposed to eat legumes on the paleo diet, but I let myself make some minor cheats). Onions, broccoli, kale, and tomatoes would also be a nice addition to this recipe.
I made the stock from scratch, but you can skip that process and use store bought stock if you like. I have included instructions for making stock below, homemade stock is very easy to make, but it does need to simmer for 3 hours.
To make stock: Place 1 cup chopped carrots, 1 cup chopped celery, 1 cup chopped white onion, and 3 cloves minced garlic in a soup pot. Place the chicken bones on top. Pick any meat off the bones first. Then fill the pot with water. Bring the water to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Add a couple shakes of red pepper flakes. Let simmer for 3 hours. Place a large pot, with a colander in it, in the sink. Pour the soup through the colander. Discard the bones and vegetables. Either use the stock right away, or freeze it.
For the Soup:
Ingredients
- 2 Bell Peppers
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 ½ cups Sliced Mushrooms
- 8 cups Chicken Stock
- Any leftover chicken gravy you have
- 1 ½ cups Chopped Carrots
- 2 cups Fresh Spinach
- 2 cans Cannelloni Beans
- 3 cups Diced Chicken
Instructions
- I roasted the peppers first by placing the whole peppers on a gas burner and charring each side. Once charred, I sliced the peppers into 3 big pieces and peeled the charred skin off. Then chop the peppers. You could opt to skip this step and let the peppers cook in the stock with the carrots.
- Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper. Sauté the mushrooms for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Pour the stock over the mushroom, increase the heat to high, and bring the stock to a simmer. Add any leftover gravy to the stock. Once the stock is simmering, reduce the heat to low to keep at a slow but steady simmer. Then add the carrots and let cook for 10 minutes, until soft.
- Tear or chop the spinach into smaller pieces. Drain and rinse the beans.
- Once the carrots are soft, add the spinach, beans, and chicken, return to a simmer. Let simmer for 5 minutes, and serve. I usually freeze half of the soup for later.
