Almost Homemade Tomato Chicken Soup

For some reason, we got hit with a cold front this week in Texas. I was walking the dog yesterday IN GLOVES (yes, I’m shouting!) in mid-April. What the what?! It was 38 degrees, this morning. I know, for you in other areas it’s not a cold front but it is here. You Canadians, stop laughing. This is serious. 😉

All I could think of yesterday was soup. I need soup. Must finish walk and get soup. So cold. Be glad you weren’t here for the whine and cheese party I was throwing. It wasn’t pretty. On cold days, I love tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Warm, toasty, good smelling comfort food.

But have you seen that weird, sort of red color of the thick blob of condensed soup that comes from the can? Just add water and bleh. I threw open my pantry and tried to figure out what I could pull together into something better than that. This soup was beyond simple to make and only took as long as boiling some pasta noodles.

The color of it was gorgeous! A perfect tomato red color. The taste was so good too. I tossed in about 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper to make it a little spicy. You could easily go more or less based on how you like it. Since it uses marinara sauce from a jar, it isn’t quite homemade but I used Newman’s Own so the ingredients weren’t all that bad for you.

Almost Homemade Tomato Chicken Soup 

• 12 oz grilled chicken breast
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• 2 tsp fresh oregano OR 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1/3 cup (56g) ditalini pasta, uncooked
• 2 cups (500g) marinara sauce
• 2 Tbsp feta cheese

Grill your chicken breasts and cut into bite sized pieces. Of course if you’ve been following here for a while, you already have grilled chicken in your fridge to skip half this step. Heat a pot over medium heat and add the crushed red pepper, oregano, and garlic. Saute for about 1 minute until the smell is wonderful.

Add the white wine, water, and broth and bring to a boil. Stir in the uncooked pasta, and cook for about 5 – 7 minutes until the pasta is cooked – just like boiling spaghetti noodles. Stir in the marinara and chicken pieces once the noodles are done and simmer another minute or two until heated.

Remove from heat. Divide evenly into 4 bowls and top with 1/2 Tbsp of feta cheese each. Makes 4 servings at approximately 259 calories each – 25g protein, 24g carbs, and 6g fat.

Notes

• I have fresh oregano growing in my garden so I used that. Dried works just as well and is probably in your pantry now.
• The wine I used was a really cheap chardonnay because the grocery stores sold it in little single serving sized bottles. I didn’t want to waste an entire bottle for 1/4 cup so I used part of a little one and have the rest in the fridge for another recipe.
• To make this vegan, leave out the chicken and cheese and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. You could also toss in tofu cubes if you like.
• Ditalini past are those tiny little tube shapes. They remind me of those little beads the kids put onto the shaped molds and you iron them to melt them together. Hopefully you know what I’m referring to here. You can also use alphabets, orzo, or another small pasta. Larger noodles will work but you will need to adjust your cooking time so the noodles are done.

I packed the leftovers into plastic containers and had one for lunch today. I didn’t have time to heat it up so I ate it cold and still made yummy noises. Man, this was a winner even by my recipe standards. Now you’ve got no excuse to eat that other tomato soup.