Midweek Snack // Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

When anyone in this house isn't feeling good, the first thing that comes to mind is Chicken Noodle Soup. Even if the someone was Levi. LOL. Any excuse. We used to feast on Whole Food's version ready made in their prepared food section and buy it in multiples of the large soup container and just chuck some extra pulled rotisserie in there to increase protein content. It was pricey, but it was delicious, required zero effort, and at least in our heads made us feel better and heal faster.

As a newly strict gluten free household I felt almost gutted when a not-feeling-well family member voiced a desire for get-well chicken noodle soup. Le sigh.

But really... the only limitation is the noodles?? OK I can handle this, y'all. Pretty much any chicken noodle recipe you love can be transformed by probably doubling the amount of chicken called for, upping vegetable content, and substituting a gluten free source of carb "filler" - such as rice, cauliflower rice, spiralized zucchini noodles, potatoes, or just mega vegetables.

Anytime I have real home made chicken broth available, I would use that as the base. But, in a pinch - and we don't typically plan on feeling sick... it might not be available, and to make broth is a 24 hour process.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

3 large yellow onions, chopped

6 large carrots, peeled & chopped

6 stalks celery, chopped

4 large cloves garlic, minced

12 cups (3 containers) organic chicken stock or broth

3 lbs boneless chicken, cut into 1 inch cubes (mix of white/dark meat)

1/4 cup coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley

2 cups wild rice blend (or other carb/vegetable of choice - rice will expand and absorb liquid, so if you substitute with anything other than rice, you would want to double this to 4 cups and not cook for as long)

2 lemons, halved

Instructions:

+ Heat oil in large pot over medium heat, add onion, carrots, celery, and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, approximately 10 minutes.

+Add broth and rice, season with salt, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and simmer until rice is al dente, approximately 25 minutes (adhere to rice cooking instructions for your particular type)

+Add chicken, season again with salt and pepper. Squeeze all four lemon halves into soup, catching seeds. Simmer until chicken is cooked through approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat, garnish with parsely, and add salt to taste.

Notes:

We loved the lemon notes in this, and when making it next time, we would squeeze in lemons and then throw at least one of the rinds in with the soup to cook the last 10 minutes for additional lemon flavor. If you love lemon as much as I do, try it out!

Some of my ingredients of choice:

#Nourish #Meals