MADDIE DAY here, with an easy, yummy, and flexible soup recipe.
Hugh and I were eating lunch at one of our favorite restaurants recently, and I noticed the soup of the day featured roasted chicken with white beans and couscous. A little light bulb went off in my head. We had roasted a chicken a couple of days before, and I'd made a flavorful stock out of the bones. We had leftover cooked couscous in the fridge, too.
March tends to be raw in New England, and has been especially so this year. A hot easy soup on a Friday night was just the ticket. I picked up a can of of cannellini and began recreating the Loretta's special.
Note: we use an herb rub for the roasted chicken, so my stock was flavorful and had plenty of salt. If yours isn't, be sure to add salt and pepper and any other herbs you enjoy.
Roast Chicken Soup
Ingredients
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil (not shown)
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups cooked couscous or 1 cup uncooked
2 cups shredded roasted chicken
10 ounces frozen or fresh chopped spinach
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Heat oil in soup pot or Dutch oven. Saute garlic for one minute.
Add stock and bring to a boil. Add other ingredients and simmer half an hour or until all are combined and cooked.
Enjoy with a green salad and a glass of wine!
Yes, it is that easy. You could substitute kale or any other green for the spinach; throw in chopped carrots at the beginning or frozen peas toward the end; use pearl couscous instead of the tiny grains, or orzo or another pasta; add a dollop of pesto or a handful of fresh herbs; grate fresh Parmesan on top before serving.
I find myself with an extra limited-edition tote bag celebrating my latest historical mystery, A Case for the Ladies, and I'd like to send it to one of you!
Readers: What's your favorite soup?
🐔🍷🕮
We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.
Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.
Edith, the soup looks easy to make and I bet it's delicious. I am going to try it.
ReplyDeleteI love all of your covers. They really are spectacular and recognizably yours!
Thank you, Judy!
DeleteMy favorite is a soup with sweet potatoes, cannellini beans and spinach. I make big batches of three or so different soups and vacuum freeze them. I can grab some out of the deep freeze, heat them up and quick lunch or dinner!
ReplyDeletePerfect, Michele.
DeleteThank you for the Roast Chicken Soup recipe. I love it when eating out and our taste buds get to working to figure out the ingredients making it possible to fix it at home.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite soup is my Mom's vegetable beef soup. She use to say you throw in everything you had on hand but the kitchen sink. We love soups year round (a benefit of having a/c). Making it in the summer time means we can use a lot of fresh from the garden veggies. Although you can freeze the fresh veggies for winter time use and it's delicious, fresh - fresh can't be beat. With a great stock, we have even made it meatless when we have all the wonderful flavors of fresh veggies.
2clowns at arkansas dot net
This recipe sounds and looks delicious!!! I love hearty soups, so this one is being made here. Thanks for the recipe, Maddie! My favorite soup is a hearty pumpkin/vegetable/herbs/chicken soup from Chile called "cazuela". It also has rice and a half ear of corn per serving. Luis at ole dot travel
ReplyDeleteMy favorite soup is a hearty potato soup that I add corn, cheddar cheese and Bob Evans breakfast sausage links that I have fried and sliced. I am going to be trying your soup this weekend!
ReplyDeleteI am not anonymous, I am GigiB in Texas!
DeleteMy favorite soup is matzo ball soup.
ReplyDeletediannekc8(at)gmail(dot)com
We're having a rainy and cool (for south Florida) day. A nice pot of soup is just what the doctor ordered!
ReplyDeleteTwo favorite soups are lentil and congee.
ReplyDeletejtcgc at yahoo dot com
I love French onion soup. cherierj(at)yahoo(dot)com
ReplyDeleteAnything with barley. sgiden at verizon(.)net
ReplyDeleteRandom picked you as our winner, Sandy! Congratulations, and please check your email.
DeleteI love broccoli cheese soup and chicken with noodles and carrots. I've never thought to make broth with the chicken bones. I'll have to look into that.
ReplyDeleteI like Chicken Noodle Soup or Beef with Vegetable
ReplyDeleteHi Maddie! That recipe sounds delicious. I love canellini beans and like to add them to my favorite soup - my mom's chicken soup recipe. aprilbluetx at yahoo dot com
ReplyDelete