The temperature has been dropping here lately, and I’ve been craving soup on almost a daily basis. I don’t think I realized this until I’d compiled a list of “To Make Soon” recipes, and about 80% of them were different varieties of soup. I was stoked – couldn’t wait to kick off a month of delicious soup making! Until I read my list outloud to Nick.
You see, Nick’s not a big soup lover. He feels like soup isn’t filling enough or something. (Well, that – and the fact that we went through a phase a while back where I made a couple HUGE batches of soup within the course of a few months…and we were eating the same soup for a week…until we couldn’t eat it any more…so we froze it…but we’d already OD’ed on it so much that it just lived in our freezer for over a year…)
So I promised him I wouldn’t make soup more than once a week this winter (sigh…). I recently got creative with a new recipe – a soul-warming, cuddle-up-to-your-honey Creamy, Smokey Corn Chowder. Yum. But it was so good that we killed that pot of soup way before we could get a camera out to capture it. So…I’ll keep you in suspense for that recipe?
But the next one on the list was one of my family classics: a Chicken Tortellini Soup. Even Nick feels satisfied after a bowl of this stuff. It’s hearty and filling without being loaded with cream and butter and cheese. A perfect January soup, a “detox” soup after the rich holiday eating. It’s loaded with veggies, chunks of chicken, and tortellini – one of my favorite pastas.
This was a Sunday dinner family classic in my Italian cuisine-inspired home growing up. I can remember many, many a Sunday afternoon, sitting around the table with my 4 siblings, piling mounds of parmesan cheese into our bowls of steaming soup. It was so crowd-pleasing that it often found its way to potlucks at church and teacher appreciation lunches. Because pretty much everyone that’s ever tried it loves it.
Everyone.
Loves it.
Whip up a quick loaf of crusty no-knead artisan bread (we did a sundried tomato basil variation here) and dinner’s ready to go!
I hope you love it, too!
- 8 C. water
- 8 chicken bouillon cubes
- One 10-3/4 oz. can condensed cream of chicken soup
- 2 C. cooked chicken, cubed
- 1 C. chopped onions
- 1 C. sliced carrots
- 1/2 C. dry vermouth (can substitute apple juice or water)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp. dry basil
- 1/2 tsp. dry oregano
- One 9 oz. pkg. frozen cut broccoli, thawed
- 7 oz. package cheese tortellini
- grated Parmesan cheese
- In a large saucepan combine water, bouillon, soup, chicken, onions, carrots, vermouth (or water or apple juice), garlic, basil and oregano. Bring to a boil. Add tortellini. Simmer uncovered 30 minutes. Add broccoli. Simmer an additional 5 to 10 minutes or until broccoli is tender. After ladling soup into bowls, sprinkle generously with grated Parmesan cheese.
Oh my goodness – we were totally on the same wavelength this week! I honestly don’t think I’ve made this since I got married (travesty!), until…we had it for dinner on SUNDAY. Like, last Sunday. Like three days ago. Love that!
Ha! This is beyond awesome, Sister! Love you!