I made this homemade soup the night before my Friend Christmas party, and put everything in the fridge. The day of the party it was delicious, and it also makes awesome leftovers!
Here’s the easy but not-quite-Megan-Simple recipe…
- 2 Cans of Italian Stewed Tomatoes (You can also use whatever tomatoes you want, I just like the Italian tomatoes’ flavor.)
- 2 cans of chicken or vegetable broth
- 6-ish boneless chicken thighs (optional)
- 1 regular-sized package of pasta or rice (optional)
- ½ an onion
- 2 carrots
- 2 stalks of celery
- Any other root vegetables you like
- Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and bay leaf to season (Add to your taste preference)
- Chop the onion, carrots, and celery into soup bite-size pieces. If the tomatoes in the can are whole, strain into a bowl and chop the tomatoes, then add them back to the strained juice.
- Add oil to your pan, bring the heat to high and sautee the carrots first for about 3 minutes.
- Turn the heat to medium-high and add the celery and onion. Cook for about 2 minutes.
- Season the vegetables with salt, pepper and garlic.
- Then add the chicken and cook for a couple of minutes until the outside is cooked.
- Turn the heat down to low and add your tomatoes, broth and bay leaf and let the whole thing simmer for an hour.
- Season to taste.
- Cook the noodles or rice and put aside, or cook the rice in the soup.
I put bowtie noodles into my soup and after about a day they got really soggy, so keeping them to the side if you want noodles is a great idea. Rice tends to hold up better especially if you use brown or wild rice. I also used vegetable broth and cooked the chicken separately since some of my friends are vegetarian and some aren’t.
Cooking the meat separately is a great way to make your vegetarian friends feel thought of. It could also be really cool to offer a few different meat add-in options if you’re serving a mixed crowd. Shredded chicken or pork, or cut sausages and hot dogs could make for some really cool custom soup bowls at a party. You could also offer toppings like tortilla strips, goldfish crackers, sour cream, chives, etc. for a crowd-friendly soup bar.
My husband and I do something similar when we cook soup, since I’m veggie and he’s not. We have also had success with a similar approach at a small dinner party, and the soup base was a sweet potato-ginger soup.
For the carni/omnivores among us, I make a pretty similar soup, but I make my own broth first. I’ll roast a whole chicken the night before, pick off all the meat (which I store in the fridge). Then I put the carcass in a croc pot and cover it with water. I leave it on low for about a day, or high for about 8 hours. Then I carefully fish out all of the bones and then add in all of the veggies and put the meat back in. I love doing this since I means I can get 4-5 meals for 2 people out of one chicken.
Mmm this sounds like a hearty winter soup.
I make a similar soup, always with some variations…
– To simplify a little, I don’t chop the whole canned tomatoes. I dump them into the soup and break them up with the back of a spoon/spatula
– I like to add 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes along with the garlic powder, for some kick
– I usually use 1/2 cup each brown rice and wild rice. I add the rice at the same time as the broth (be sure to add an extra 1-2 cups water for the rice to absorb).
This is also delicious with chopped greens added at the end. My favorite is adding 1 bunch kale, rinsed and chopped, about 10min before the soup is done.
Yum!