I’ve been doing some very adult things recently – both thinking and doing. The opposite of all that is probably making alphabet soup – but I don’t care. Life is about balance. And I’ll be pretty well balanced for about 6 meals after this giant pot of child’s soup.
This weekend was the first one in probably a month where nothing was happening. Not a thing. No games. No plans. Nothing on the calendar. It also happened to come after the longest week in awhile. Some of those events included: Eating this cake, Dinner at A4 in the South End and 6+ hrs driving to CT for the day. On Friday night, my brother and I were turned away from FOUR pizza places while attempting to order takeout.
So this weekend was about doing nothing. I putzed around with the family dog, made this again for Saturday dinner, played with my new camera at the beach, and made this soup. I feel pretty good about it. I didn’t even have a BLT. This morning I feel like I saw sunrise for the first time in a week, the weather has just been so gray. All good signs for a good week.
A few things about this soup:
- CARROTS // do you recognize them? Cause I grew them! Don’t they look beautiful and wholesome?
- ALPHABETS // I might have to put in too many letters – but I don’t really care. Soup isn’t exactly the place for measuring.
- SPICY // Speaking of measuring, I definitely mixed up my spices. I meant to grab the paprika but accidentally grabbed the cayenne pepper. So my hearty dash of spice turned out to be slightly aggressive – but it actually worked out. I feel like it makes this soup a bit more adult. I took the edge off the spicy kick with a hefty dash of lemon juice.
- RECIPE // I originally was following this recipe from Emeril Lagase … and then after the cayenne pepper incident it all went out the window. So this recipe is pretty based on nothing except what I wanted to eat.
Here’s how it goes.
- Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add in two chicken breasts. Cook a few minutes each side until lightly brown. The goal isn’t to cook them completely since they’ll end up cooking in the soup.
- Pull the chicken and set aside. Add the onion, celery, carrots, tarragon, and cayenne pepper to the pot. Cook until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. While the veggies are cooking, roughly chop up the semi-cooked chicken.
- Add the chicken, chicken stock, pepper, squeeze of a lemon and bay leaf. Bring the whole pot to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 35 minutes.
- Add the alphabet pasta and stir well. Simmer until the pasta is cooked through, about 10 minutes.
Shopping List (based on this original recipe)
2 cups chopped yellow onion
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
1 1/2 cups sliced carrots
1/2 T tarragon
1/2 t cayenne pepper
2 T lemon juice
2 quarts low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 cup alphabet pasta