chicken minestrone

This soup is half minestrone, half chicken noodle and 100 percent a crowd pleaser. The light tomato broth with all of the veggies, beans, noodles and chicken will definitely become one of your go-to meals. It’s simple and easy to make – you basically throw things in a pot, which is my favorite kind of cooking!

What you will need:

• Two tablespoons of olive oil
• One medium sweet onion, diced
• Two carrots, diced
• Two stalks of celery, diced
• One red pepper, diced
• Three roma tomatoes, remove the seeds and dice
• Two boxes of chicken stock (three if you want to more broth)
• A good handful of green beans, chopped into one inch pieces
• One can of cannellini beans
• 1 pound of chicken breasts
• A heaping handful of kale or spinach, if desired
• Half a box of a fun noodles (large seashells, rotelle, cavatappi, ditalini are good choices)
• Salt and pepper
• One tablespoon of dried oregano
• Grated parmesan

Bake your chicken (salt and peppered) at 350 degrees until cooked all the way through and set aside to cool. Once cooled, shred or dice into small pieces. If you are feeling lazy, grab a rotisserie chicken from the store. It will work just as well.

In a large soup pot on medium heat, drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil and let it heat up. Add your onion and cook until translucent (about 6-8 minutes). Then, add your carrots, celery and red pepper and cook for about 10 minutes. Next, add your tomatoes and cook until softened and broken down. Add your stock next along with your cannellini beans, green beans, oregano, salt and pepper and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in another pot cook your noodles until they are al dente and set aside.

When you are getting close to eating, add your chicken to your soup, as well as your greens if you are choosing to add those. Bring everything up to temp and taste to see if it needs more salt or pepper. When you are ready to serve, take the soup off the stove and add your noodles, stirring so that everything is combined.

Serve in soup bowls and top with grated parmesan.