Harvest chicken soup

This warm and hearty soup is a great use for the canned chicken and root vegetables that often come in a food hamper! It's very customizable to your taste, and the ingredients you have in your pantry.

• 4 cups chopped root vegetables; turnip, rutabaga, carrot, parsnip, potato or sweet potato
  
  
• 2 large onions, chopped
  
  
• 1 tablespoon oil
  
  
• 2 150 g cans of chicken
  
  
• 1 900 mL container of chicken or vegetable broth, or 4 cups of water and 2 boullion cubes
  
  
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley or dill (optional)
  
  
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Chop vegetables and onions into bite-sized pieces. Open and drain canned chicken.
   
   
2. Pour oil into a large pot, and heat over medium heat. Add onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened, around 5 minutes. Add the seasonings to the pot and cook until fragrant, around another minute.
   
   
3. Add root vegetables, chicken, and chicken broth to the the pot, and increase the heat to bring the soup to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and allow the soup to simmer.
   
   
4. Simmer soup for 20-25 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and ready to eat.

• To make in the slow cooker, just add all the ingredients to the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours, or LOW for 7-8.
  
  
• This recipe can also be made with uncooked chicken. Just lay chicken breast or thighs on top of the root vegetables in the pot, and ensure that it is completely covered in broth. Bring the pot to a boil and simmer for around 20 minutes, and then use forks or tongs to lift the chicken out of the soup. It should have an internal temperature of 165F; if you don't have a meat thermometer, try cutting into it. If it's all the way cooked, it will be white or brown (not pink) all the way through, and pull apart easily. Shred the cooked chicken and return it to the pot to simmer for another 10 minutes or so.

This soup is super flexible, and you can throw in just about anything you have on hand! A few suggestions are below:

• Add a can of chickpeas or beans
  
  
• Add a cup of grain, like rice or pot barley, or pasta noodles
  
  
• Add any fresh or frozen veggies you'd like to use up; green beans, broccoli, celery, mixed veg, bell peppers, or corn would all be great. If you're adding greens, like spinach or kale, put them in the pot for the last 5 minutes or so of simmering so that they don't get overcooked
  
  
• Change up the spices; try garlic cloves, thyme, oregano, Italian seasoning, a teaspoon of Worcestershire or hot sauce. You can also add a squeeze of lemon juice at the end, to brighten up the soup for serving.

If you're adding a lot of ingredients to the soup, or add dry ingredients like uncooked rice that will absorb liquid, you may have to increase the amount of water or broth in the pot. Just keep an eye on the soup as it boils, and add liquid as needed.

 

• Cool soup completely, and store in sealed container in fridge for up to 3 days.
  
  
• Soup freezes very well; it's a good idea to make a double batch and freeze your leftovers. Cool soup completely, and ladle into individual serving size containers. Freeze for up to 3 months.

Recipe adapted from Pittsburgh Food Bank

Food is Too Expensive! was funded by the City of Saskatoon through our Healthy Yards partnership, the Cyril Capling Trust Fund of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources, and the Department of Plant Sciences. Focus group research to inform this work was collected by CHEP. Thank you all for helping us make healthy food more accessible!