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LINDA HOSKINS
I hope you all survived the snow and bitter cold! If you are a regular reader of this column, you know that I love soup! And this cold weather had me wanting to make a new recipe sent to me from my sister who lives in Florida. Gail says “this may be the most delicious soup I’ve ever made.” She is right. This soup is wonderful! Read past the recipes for comments from both of us.
MARRY ME CHICKEN SOUP
(makes 6 servings)
(Submitted by Gail Kear)
■ 1/2 cup julienne-cut sun-dried tomatoes package din oil with herbs, drained
■ 1 Tbsp oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes
■ 1 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
■ 4 cloves garlic, minced (4 tsp)
■ 3 Tbsp tomato paste
■ 2 32-oz chicken broth
■ 1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
■ 4 tsp chopped fresh basil
■ 1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
■ 1 tsp garlic powder
■ 2 tsp kosher salt
■ 1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
■ 8 oz. uncooked medium shell pasta
■ 3 cups roughly chopped fresh baby spinach
■ 2 cups shredded or chopped Rotisserie chicken
■ 8 oz cream cheese, cubed, at room temperature
■ 1 1/2 oz. Parmesan cheese
Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat until it shimmers. Cook the onion and garlic, 3 to 4 minutes until softened. Add tomato paste and tomatoes. Cook, stirring constantly, until the paste is deep red, about 2 minutes. Stir in the broth, cream and seasonings. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add pasta, reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for 12 minutes or until pasta al dente, stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat to low, add spinach, chicken, cream cheese and parmesan cheese. Cook, stirring often, until the cheeses melted, about 5 minutes. If you like, garnish each serving with some Parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of basil.
Gail added this note to the recipe: “I subbed half and half for the heavy cream and used Neufchatel cheese to reduce the calories a bit and it still had a rich taste. I served toasted garlic bread with this.”.
If you want to make this recipe, I strongly suggest you have the ingredients measured out ahead of time and ready to go. Each cooking step goes quickly. If you are not familiar with jarred sun-dried tomatoes, you can find them in the aisle with canned tomatoes. (I have also seen the jars in the produce section of some stores). The jar comes with the tomatoes already julienned. The recipe does not indicate doing this, but I chopped the strips up into smaller pieces. The crushed red pepper flakes add a nice bit of heat to the soup. if you prefer a mild flavor, use less red pepper or omit it completely. Also, you can use any shape pasta you want. I had some pasta shells on hand that I wanted to use up, and I think they were bigger shells than the recipe calls for. It took closer to 20 minutes for the shells to be cooked al dente. By the way, this soup makes great left-overs. It reheated beautifully in the microwave.
If you have a recipe to share, please send it to [email protected] or mail it to Mascoutah Herald, PO Box C, Mascoutah IL 62258. Thanks, and as I like to say, Happy Cooking!
