Sunday, March 1, 2009

Chicken Vegetable Soup with Orzo


I love making soups and from what I hear, I am pretty good at it! Whenever I make a roasted chicken I feel compelled to make chicken stock, as I did over the weekend. There was not much involved in making the soup as my chicken stock is so flavorful by itself.

My sister in law, made Italian Wedding Soup (which I loved) and used a pasta called Ronzoni Acini Di Pepe #44. I really loved the texture of that little pasta, it was like a tiny pasta ball.

I wanted to use that in my soup today, but could not find it anywhere! I ended up using Orzo pasta instead.

Chicken broth (home made if possible), I ended up using about a gallon
2-3 peeled and diced Carrots
2-3 stalks sliced Celery
1/2 box chopped frozen spinach
2 cups diced chicken (I used the leftover meat from my roasted chicken on Sunday)
1/2 box of Orzo Pasta
Salt and pepper to taste

Place your broth in a soup pot and heat to medium, add the carrots and simmer until they are almost cooked thru, add the remaining ingredients and cook until the pasta is plump and tender. Salt and Pepper to taste.

I served with fresh bread and a salad

20 comments:

Christina Kim said...

I love recipes that are simple and straight-forward, like this one. Sometimes, a great soup doesn't need need to be complicated with fancy ingredients or 25 steps to follow. And since it's so simple, it is easily adaptable to other tastes! Such as replacing the spinach with kale, or replacing the orzo with barley. I will definitely try this soup out!

Selba said...

Your chicken vegetable soup looks yummy!

Eh.. your Martha Anne is ninety pound? Wow... I think my one year sausage dog is less than 9 pound :)

Donna-FFW said...

Cheryl, I need you to fed express me some of this heart and soul warming food. We have loads of snow and I want some of this ultra delicious looking goodness. Thank you.

Debbie said...

What a great soup. Growing up my grandmother always used orzo in her chicken soup. Yours looks so good!

Katherine Roberts Aucoin said...

I like the addition of the orzo to the soup. This is truly chicken soup for the soul!

Anonymous said...

That is a truly gorgeous soup! It looks as though you got a nice creamy texture to the broth...is that from the starch in the orzo, or did you add a bit of thickener?

Paula said...

Mmmm ... SOUP! Love what you've done here. This type of soup is just so amazing, and yours looks terrific. Orzo is a great substitute for pastina (what we call Acini Di Pepe). DeCecco brand is terrific and can be found at Fred Meyer. Is your hubby home from his world travels?

Dewi said...

Orzo is the best for soup, I like it better then any other grain, although putting barley, lentil, etc, is healthier I still prefer orzo. Yours really look delicious.
Cheers,
Elra

Heather said...

mmmm. i love orzo. it looks so delicious. i love making homemade broth too - it is so much more flavorful than the boxed stuff!

Pam said...

Looks great Cheryl - I love orzo in chicken soup.

krysta said...

that soup looks wonderful especially when it's raining like it is around here.

The Blonde Duck said...

That looks really good! Yum!

Jennifer said...

Ive never had chicken soup with orzo! YUM!!!!!

MaryBeth said...

This was a very good heart warming soup, it was perfect with the orzo but being the best sister in law ever I hooked Cheryl up with a box of the #44 pasta for her next cooking adventure. Thanks for sharing the soup with us,it was great.

Sara said...

Oooh, this looks delicious. I'm a big fan of orzo, it's so good in so many different ways.

Patsyk said...

What a nice and flavorful soup! I love making my own stock as well, it always makes homemade soup that much better.

Lyndas recipe box said...

This soup looks delicious! I agree that using your own stock makes the most flavorfull soup.

Jan said...

Like you, I can't throw a chicken out without making soup from the bones and left-over meat. This soup looks lovely.

Foodiewife said...

How funny! We both have the same soup dishes and we both make roasted chicken stock. This looks really good, especially with orzo. What a hearty meal!

Debby

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