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!
