A warm, filling, delicious soup, loaded with colorful veggies that can be made quickly and tweaked according to your needs.
Imaginary Play
Imaginary play is my very favorite thing to listen to as a mom.
Lia (4) and Briggy (6) are talking to each other on their “phones” from different rooms. They are playing house and they are friends setting up a playdate.
Pretty soon, Lia comes into Briggys “house” and flops down on the floor with a very heavy sigh. “I am not feeling very good today.”
Briggy perks up and whispers, “Lia! Pretend I am the doctor now.” Lia nods and in a whisper says, “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
Soup is the answer
Promptly, Briggy walks out of the room and back in again in a very official way. “What’s wrong with you today?” he asks in a deep voice, well, as deep as he can get. Always the ham, Lia puts her hand across her forehead and says quietly, “I am sick.”
With a nod of his head, Briggy looks her up and down and replies, “You lie here and I will make you some soup.”
I was wiping off the counter when I heard all of this transpire and I smiled. I wish soup was the answer to all of our ails. In some ways, I think Briggy has it just right.
Wouldn’t it be great if our prescriptions said things like, ” A warm bowl of soup surrounded by people you love.” “A fresh baked chocolate chip cookie and a good laugh with friends.” “A steamy loaf of bread and fresh strawberry jam next to a rippling creek.” Maybe those are the things that heal us.
Good Quality Chicken Broth or Stock
Thoughts for another day…on to that soup recipe, that may heal all our sorrows.
This soup is simple and quick to put together. The base of the soup is chicken broth so you want to use a good quality one with nice flavor.
If you make your own chicken stock, awesome! I try to keep stock in my freezer at all times. I put 2 cups of my stock in bags that I lay flat to freeze so they defrost quickly. It works really well.
I have recently seen those silicone soup cube things for freezing soup and I am very curious to try those out with stock.
When I don’t have frozen stock, I like to use the Kettle and Fire brand. There are other good brands out there as well, but the Kettle and Fire brand has good flavor and a good ingredient list.
Make adjustments for your needs
You can alter this recipe to fit your needs. The soup is delicious just as it is but it also lends itself to other additions. You can add another cup of broth and a 1/2 cup of rice or pasta.
The vegetables can be changed based on what you have on hand. You can also toss in some corn or peas at the end.
If this recipe is thickened up a little more by adding a bit more flour, it would be a great chicken pot pie filling.
You can also make it vegetarian by increasing the veggies and skipping the chicken. Adding some greens at the end could bulk it up too.
We make it dairy free and gluten free with almond milk and gluten free flour. I pull out some of the soup for my dairy free kids before I add the cream cheese at the end.
The soup is still delicious without the cream cheese but if you do add it, it adds a creaminess to the final product that I love. Dairy free cream cheese might work as well, I just haven’t tried it before. Do what works best for your family.
In the picture below the one on the left has the cream cheese. The one on the right does not.
Basic Chicken and Vegetable Soup
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup onion, diced
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup celery, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
4 cups good flavored chicken broth
2 ½ cups of potatoes, diced
1 cup milk (we use almond milk)
¼ cup flour (we use gluten free but all purpose works great too)
1 cup chopped chicken
4 oz softened cream cheese, optional
½ -1 teaspoon salt (depending on your broth)
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
¼ teaspoon pepper
Add the oil to a large pot. Turn the stove to medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion, celery and carrots. Stir them around. Let the vegetables cook until the onion starts to be translucent, stirring every 30 seconds or so. Next, add the garlic. Stir well and let cook one minute more. Add broth and potatoes. Bring mixture to a low boil, stirring frequently.
Cook until the vegetables are tender. Mix the milk and flour together. Carefully, pour it into the hot soup. Stir to blend the milk mixture with the soup. It will begin to thicken. Add the chicken and softened cream cheese, cut into cubes, if using. Stir. Let sit 30 seconds while the cream cheese softens even more with the heat. Add salt and pepper to taste and then stir one last time to incorporate the cream cheese. Serve warm. Reheats well.
- Meatless – Simply leave out the chicken and if so desired, use vegetable broth. To help bulk up the soup you can increase the vegetables, add a can of beans, or add quinoa or rice.
- Gluten Free – Use gluten free flour. You can use cornstarch too.
- Dairy Free – Use dairy free milk. Omit the cream cheese or use dairy free cream cheese or this recipe from Cookie and Kate for cashew sour cream might work too.
