southwestern chicken and vegetable soup

 It's really depressing when you're looking at the seven day weather forecast

online and all you see is snow, gusty winds, and below zero temperatures. The

high temp on Monday is supposed to be -3 to -7. That's without the wind

chill factor. I've seen this picture going around Facebook. Sums it all up.

We've been eating a lot of homemade soup this winter. It's hearty, easy to

make, warms you up, and is great for leftovers. This past Wednesday when

 Brian and I had that spontaneous day out and we had lunch at Al's Cafe, Brian

 had a cup of Southwestern Chicken soup that was delicious. I tried it, made a 

mental note of some of the ingredients in the soup, and said, "I can make that!" 

I'm proud to say that it was even better than the restaurant's soup and that Brian

 had three servings for dinner tonight!

SOUTHWESTERN CHICKEN AND VEGETABLE SOUP

2 T. extra-virgin olive oil

4 stalks celery, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 green, red, or yellow bell pepper (or any combination), diced

3 carrots, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

64 oz. low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth

1 – 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 – 15.5 oz. can kidney or red beans, drained and rinsed

1 small yellow squash, sliced into rounds, then sliced in half

1 c. cooked brown rice

4 c. cooked, cubed or shredded chicken

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. oregano

½ T. each cumin and chili powder

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

In a Dutch oven, heat extra-virgin olive oil, then add celery, onion,

peppers, and carrots. Saute for 8 minutes or until slightly tender.

Add minced garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add broth (yes, you

will need this much broth – the rice absorbs a lot of the broth) -

chicken, then add spices. Simmer on low for 1 hour.

Serve warm and savor ~

And what goes perfectly with this kind of soup than cornbread? I won't be sharing

this recipe with you because it was a new one I found by doing a simple Google

search, but it wasn't that great. My favorite cornbread recipes are made with

butter as one of the ingredients and I was all out of butter, so I searched for

recipes for cornbread using olive oil. It was "OK", but cornbread made with butter

tastes so much better.

 

 Enjoy your weekend and keep warm!