I made this beautiful delicious soup the other night for dinner. It was easy and I used lots of veggies that I had in the house. I used a Rotisserie Chicken and boxed chicken stock which made this easy and quick to assemble. Of course you can use home-made stock and roast a whole chicken yourself. I decided to make this at about 5 p.m. and it really was ready about an hour later. I like my soups to sit and simmer for a while so we didn’t eat it till 7 p.m. but honestly this soup could have been eaten an hour after it was assembled. Total chopping and cooking time is about an hour but like I said I let it simmer for almost 2 hours. Perfection in a bowl. You can obviously substitute with different types of vegetables in this soup. A loaf of crusty bread would be very nice alongside this soup.
This soup can be refrigerated overnight and you might need to add a little water to thin out the soup. You can also freeze for up to 3 months.
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*should serve between 4 and 6 nicely as a meal
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium carrot, halved lengthwise and thinly cut crosswise–or just thinly cut rounds
1 small turnip, diced
1/2 small sweet onion, finely chopped
1 small fennel bulb, cored and thinly sliced or diced whichever you like , I sliced thinly
1 celery rib, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
Kosher Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper (or used coarse ground black pepper)
app. 1/4 lb. green beans, cut into 1/4’s or use yellow beans
8 cups Chicken Stock
12 cherry or small type tomatoes , quartered
1/2 cup (app) of frozen green peas
1 cup orzo, cook according to box directions for al dente and drained
a handful of arugula for each bowl thinly sliced, I used baby arugula
1 Rotisserie Chicken, remove skin and shred chicken off the bones
Directions:
In a large heavy stock pot or enamel cast iron pot ( Le Creuset) heat the olive oil over moderate heat. Add the carrot and turnip, then add in the onion, fennel, celery , garlic and a generous pinch of kosher salt and cook, stirring vegetables occasionally , cook until veggies break down and get soft without burning, probably up to 10 minutes on a low flame.
Stir in the green beans then add in the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Add in the tomatoes and peas. Simmer the soup over moderately low heat, partially covered, until the vegetables are tender, at least 1/2 hour and up to 1 hour. I simmered for about an hour.
While soup is simmering taste for Salt and Pepper. Season to taste. Right before serving you can add chicken to pot and heat through.
When we were ready to eat I placed orzo and arugula into bowls and ladled hot soup over the arugula and orzo!
Afterwards I added orzo to the pot and froze soup for future use in airtight containers.
You can freeze in a good freezer for about 3 months. I figure it will be something to look forward to when we return to Colorado in the summer. When you re-heat the frozen soup you’ll need to add water/stock it’s your choice . I usually just add a little water at a time till the desired consistency is reached.
Cooking with Candi 