This soup was hearty and delicious and everyone in our family gave it a thumbs up!
Happy New Year!
If you read my New Year’s Eve post on Monday, then you’ll remember that I mentioned that some of my posts will be showing the new recipes we’ve been trying at our house during the month of December.
These recipes are helping us in our goal of eliminating as much of the “bad fats” from our diet and we’ve been using a variety of websites, blogs and cookbooks to guide us in finding some fun new meal options.
One thing our family loves is homemade soup. During the fall and winter months we have homemade soup all the time.
When I was looking through The South Beach Diet Cookbook last month, I saw this recipe for Chicken and Veggie Chowder and it seemed like we would all love it. We had everything for it at home already, so we gave it a go. If you were following the South Beach Diet itself, this recipe is recommended for Phase II. Since we are not, we could eat it any time we wanted to.
It was a cold day when we had it, and it was definitely a warm-your-belly kind of soup. Everyone loved it, which is one reason we love making soups. Very rarely does someone not like soup at our house. This recipe was definitely a keeper, and of course, it was good for you.
CHICKEN AND VEGGIE CHOWDER (from the South Beach Diet Cookbook)
INGREDIENTS
3 cups chicken broth
2 carrots, chopped
2 ribs of celery, chopped
2 ounces mushrooms
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 3/4″ strips
2 tablespoons trans-free margarine or butter (We’ve been trying out the Smart Balance Omega 3 sticks and the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter sticks)
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 cup 1% milk
3 spears asparagus cut up into 1″ pieces or 1 cup broccoli florets (we like both but we went with the broccoli.)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
DIRECTIONS
In a large pot, combine the broth, carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, garlic, thyme, and salt.
Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
Using a slotted spoon, remove half of the vegetable mixture to a food processor and process until pureed. Return to the saucepan.
Stir in the chicken, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink.
Melt the margarine in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour until smooth and cook for one minute.
Gradually add the milk and cook, stirring constantly for three minutes, or until thickened.
Stir into the chicken mixture. Add the asparagus or broccoli, parsley, and pepper and cook for 5 minutes, or until heated through.
The Whole bag of Chips 