Curried Chicken Vegetable Soup

Purchased:

 1 onion ($1)

1 potato ($1)

Corn on the cob (3 for $2)

Cauliflower ($1.49)

Gluten-free Anellini pasta ($3.59)

What I added:

Baby carrots I had left over

Celery

Curry powder

Salt and Pepper

Boneless, skinless Chicken

This week I wanted to use up some ingredients from my fridge before the veggies went bad, and I thought soup would be my best option.  I did some shopping at the local farmer’s market and found a few dollar vegetables, and went to the grocery store to see what they had on clearance that I could add, which is when I found the pasta.  When I studied in Italy during college, anellini pasta became a staple for me…I would just add it to some vegetable broth and eat it as a makeshift cheap meal.  I decided to embellish that idea by making my own broth from scratch and adding fresh veggies and some chicken.

Making the broth:

Fill a large pot with about 20 cups of water, and add half an onion, a raw, boneless, skinless chicken breast, some celery (2-3 stalks broken in half), and a handful of carrots if you’d like.  Bring water to a boil, then reduce flame to a simmer.  Simmer for 3 1/2 hours.  Water will reduce significantly.  Add about 1 1/2-2 teaspoons of salt (to taste), and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.

When 3 1/2 hours have passed and you are happy with the flavor of your broth, remove chicken breast and set aside.  Then remove from stovetop, and pour broth through a strainer into another large pot, in order to discard all veggies.  Toss those veggies in the trash.

*Note: for this particular recipe I used a boneless, skinless chicken breast, but you can use bone-in or just bones and skin of a chicken you’ve previously eaten to make the broth.  I actually think the broth is better if made from the carcass of a chicken, which is how I would make this recipe in the future.

Making the soup:

Dice 1 cup of carrots, 2 celery stalks, and 1 peeled potato.  Coarsely chop a small cauliflower.  (You could finely chop the rest of the onion and add it also for more flavor too).  Remove corn kernels from 1 cob.  Add all vegetables to the broth you made.  Tear or chop the chicken breast you set aside into bite size pieces and add to soup.  Add 2 teaspoons of curry powder.  (In the video, I said to only add 1 teaspoon of curry powder, but after tasting it, I prefer 2)  Bring soup to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook for about 20 minutes.  Add 1 cup of the pasta, bring to a boil again for about 5 minutes.  Then it’s ready to serve!

*You could easily make this soup rather quickly if you didn’t want to make your broth from scratch…I just think it tastes better with a homemade broth, and it’s an easy way to cook the chicken at the same time.  If you used a pre-made broth, I would recommend adding pre-cooked chicken meat as well.

*Vegetarian Option:  Use vegetable broth and leave out the chicken.

Makes about 8 servings.

End of Meal Notes:  The soup was good.  However, I would add less cauliflower because the next day all the veggies absorbed all the broth and it was more of stew than a soup when we went to eat it again.  Also, it had good flavor, but I think I would have made my broth with some bones and skin of a chicken I’d previously baked with herbs to make the broth a little more savory.  It was good enough though that I’d make it again with these changes.