Friday Night Leftovers: Chicken Soup
Chicken soup is about as exciting as my Friday nights get nowadays and this week I made a delicious, quick, warming chicken soup that was so welcomed in this freezing cold weather we are experiencing in North Carolina. The thing about a Friday night leftovers soup is that it is so customizable to whatever you have on hand, and will probably be delicious no matter what. For this soup, I used up a lot of odds-and-ends of vegetables sitting in my crisper drawer, as well as the last bit of a rotisserie chicken from two nights before. I encourage you to try some different things than the usual carrot/celery/onion in your soup. For example, I added some mushrooms, green beans, and a sweet potato. Perhaps a little non-traditional, but let me tell you it has so much flavor! Don’t have green beans, but have a bell pepper instead? Cool, throw it in! Have kale instead of collards? Perfect! Don’t have chicken, or you’re a vegetarian? Canned beans or some lentils would be amazing in this soup instead. Moral of this story is: you do you.
Here’s my other tip for soup: in order to actually help make it filling, focus on getting a protein source (chicken, beans), carbohydrate source (sweet potato, noodles, rice), and lots of fiber from vegetables (i.e. the more the better). This will make it a more complete meal and help you actually feel satiated afterwards. Also, best served with some cheesy garlic toast or avocado toast in my opinion!
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 carrots, diced small
- 1 small sweet potato, diced small
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 heads of garlic, minced
- 4 diced mushrooms
- small handful of green beans, diced
- 5 collard green leaves, chiffonade-cut (long, thin strips)
- 6-8oz of pre-cooked chicken, diced
- ¼ tsp sea salt (or to taste)
- ½ tsp black pepper (or to taste)
- ¼ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- 2, 32-oz boxes of chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
- Optional: dash of cayenne or red pepper flake for a kick
- Peel and dice the carrots and sweet potatoes into small pieces.
- Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
- Add in the sweet potatoes and carrots and let them cook until starting to get tender, and slightly browned on the edges (any browning gives the soup even better flavor).
- After about 7 minutes, add in the diced onion and cook until they start to soften, about 3-4 minutes.
- Turn down the heat to medium or medium-low.
- Next, add in the garlic, mushrooms, and green beans along with all of the spices, and saute for a few more minutes.
- Once all of the vegetables are getting soft, add in the chicken broth and diced chicken, plus the strips of collard greens.
- Let everything heat through together, add more spices to taste, serve, and enjoy!
