I was in the mood for soup and had chicken broth in the freezer, but no cooked chicken. Could have added some chicken pieces to this if I wanted more protein but I’d had a bean heavy lunch and didn’t feel the need. I used a few cups of leftover mixed vegetables I had in the freezer that I labeled “for vegetable soup.” Some carrots, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, celery, peas. Started with a quart of my homemade chicken broth but it was concentrated so I added a few extra cups of water. If you don’t like spicy, you can leave out the Creole seasoning and just call it vegetable soup.
Soup is so flexible–as long as you have good broth! You could of course start this all by browning some chicken pieces in the pot with the oil, then adding water to make your own broth.
Creole Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 2 Tbs oil
- 1/2 -1/3 cup diced yellow onion
- 2 green onions sliced
- 1 carrot peeled and diced
- 1 stalk of celery diced
- 1 large clove garlic minced
- 2 tsp creole spice mix like Emeril's or Tony Chachere's
- a bit of fresh or dried parsley
- 1 cup or so raw spinach leaves chopped
- 2 cups mixed vegetables I added a half a red pepper, diced, to the vegetable mix from the freezer
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 cup rice
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a soup pan and cook the yellow or white onion, carrot, celery, garlic and green onion. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring, until the onion is softened. Add the spice mix, spinach and other vegetables (could be zucchini, cabbage, kale, green beans, yellow beans, whatever you have around). cook another minute or two, stirring.
- Add the chicken broth and the rice and cook simmering for 25 minutes or so. You could also add cooked beans if you like, or add them instead of the rice. Or some diced potatoes. Or pasta. Or skip the starch altogether if you wanted a side soup rather than a main dish. Most people would probably enjoy some diced cooked chicken or you could add some raw chicken pieces and then remove then after they are cooked (probably about 30 minutes), shred the meat and return it to the pot.
I also like a bit of bread with my soup, either sliced and served with or made into a large crouton like thing and put on top of the soup. Tonight, I pulled a few slices of a baguette from the freezer (just slice and freeze!) and then buttered them and topped with a seasoning that was originally meant as a salad topping. I put those under the broiler a few minutes until the crisped up then put on top of the soup. Perfect!
Creole Soup
Have always wanted a recipe for any chicken soup that a little bit spicy and I think I may have just found it here. Thanks for sharing and will also try the corn pudding, since it looks really easy enough to do.