Wednesday, March 6, 2013

chicken and rice soup




i woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain softly drumming on the roof and the wind blowing something fierce outside our window. so of course, i assumed when i awoke this morning, it would be grey and rainy and windy outside. you know, soup weather. imagine my surprise when i woke up and the sun was brightly shining and barely a breeze stirred the trees. 

too late, though, because i already had soup on my brain and so there will be soup ...sunny weather or not!


this is a "recipe" for a simple yet soul and belly satisfying soup that you can throw together with leftovers and can tweak a million ways to suit your mood and taste buds. i had hoped we had a yellow onion and a lemon kicking around the kitchen, but alas, whoever does the shopping for the house (ahem, moi) lags and didn't pick up any garlic, onion or lemons this week (you know, basic kitchen staples) so i set to work with what we had on hand.

chicken and rice soup

3 cups trader joe's organic + low sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups leftover, cooked white rice
2 medium carrots, diced
1 tsp olive oil
s + p
1 cup diced leftover rotisserie chicken
1 teeny, tiny garlic clove, minced
sprig of rosemary from the patio

put olive oil in a medium sized pot and heat over medium. once its ready, add carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. add minced garlic and stir, stir, stir so the garlic doesn't burn, for about 30 seconds. add broth, water, couple pinches of salt, few cracks of pepper, rosemary, rice and chicken and stir. cover and turn heat up and bring just to a boil, then uncover and lower heat back to medium and let simmer for about 15 minutes. taste and add more s + p as desired.

if i would have had them on hand, i would have added diced onion and celery when i sauteed the carrots and another minced garlic clove. some freshly squeezed lemon juice when it was all done cooking would have added a nice bright citrus note to the soup. 

other ways to change it up? 

-add a little knob of peeled ginger
-or some thyme
-or some sriracha
-poach an egg in it
-use leeks
-use brown rice/quinoa/couscous
-use lemongrass
- add spinach or kale




No comments:

Post a Comment