Wondering what to cook for dinner? Nothing beats a good homemade chicken soup, don’t you think? I’m talking the kind you make from scratch with a whole chook and loads of veggies cooked low and slow, then laced with lemon and fresh herbs. The resulting chicken broth is so wonderfully nourishing and grounding and packed with immune-boosting and healing nutrients, in easy to digest forms. It’s the kind of stuff that feeds your soul.
Traveling around Australia in a van hasn’t always allowed me the time or access to a good chook to do this. So, this is the quick chicken soup I can manage to throw together in under an hour – using some fridge & pantry staples like bone broth concentrate (I like this and this), dried herbs and cooked chicken – and still be rewarded with the same nourishment and comfort as if it had been simmering away all day on the stove top. Throw in any old fridge scrap veg and add some pasta too, if you wish. That’s a drizzle of my Activated Herby Pesto on top too, completely optional but definitely encouraged.
Quick Chicken Soup
Serves: 4 – Prep time: 10 mins – Cook time: 40 mins
Ingredients:
- 1 Tbsp ghee or olive oil
- 1.5L chicken broth
- 500g cooked chicken, diced/shredded
- 1 potato, diced (peeled if not organic)
- 1 zucchini, grated
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 can (400g) cannellini beans *BPA-free
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 ear of corn, kernels
- 3/4 cup soup pasta (I use this)
- 1 frozen spinach cube
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
- Sea salt & fresh black pepper, to taste
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Optional extra: 2 Tbsp Activated Herby Pesto mixed with 2 Tbsp olive oil, for drizzling on top
Instructions:
- To a large pot, heat ghee over medium heat and sauté the onion and garlic until the onions they’re translucent.
- Add potato, carrot, zucchini and corn and stir.
- Add broth and herbs and simmer for 30-minutes, or until the harder vegetables like potatoes are cooked.
- While the soup in simmering away, cook the pasta in a separate pot of boiling water, according to the instructions.
- To the soup, add cooked chicken, spinach and lemon juice and cooked for a further 5-10 minutes.
- Divide pasta between your bowls and pour over chicken soup.
- Serve with a dollop of pesto and buttered crusty sourdough bread.
Happy Cooking!
Lucy x
