I am a soup fanatic. It has always been my favorite food regardless of the time of year. I’m one of those people who tends to feel cold even in the summer (air conditioning), and a big bowl of soup always helps me warm up.
There are a lot of great soup-makers in my family: my mom, my aunt, my late grandmother, my dad, and my husband (best chicken noodle soup EVER, hands down…sorry Grandma). Since I’ve really only been making my soups from scratch for a couple of years now, I’m not adding myself to that list just yet…but maybe after many more years of practice I’ll be able to.
Chicken noodle soup is my favorite.
Most people love chicken noodle soup, but I am like a chicken noodle soup connoisseur. I order it everywhere I go that has some variation of it on the menu, whether it is a diner or a fancy restaurant. I started making my recipe from one of Anne Burrell’s recipes, and tweaked it over many tries until I made it my own.
However, since I am trying to eat more whole grains now and reduce my intake of white and gluten-containing products (noodles), I’ve had to get more creative with the noodle aspect of my soup recipes. I’ve tried gluten free noodles (I like the ones made from brown rice flour the best), rice, lentils, etc.; but my favorite way to eat chicken soup without using white pasta is to use quinoa: hence the name “chiquinoa”.
What you need for Chiquinoa Soup:
These are the amounts I use for my 5 qt. soup/stock pot (a dutch oven will work fine). Adjust your proportions depending on what size pot you are using. Remember to use fresh, local, organic ingredients when you can.
• 4 bone-in chicken thighs with the skins removed and the fat trimmed (as much as you can)
• 3 carrots diced, chopped, sliced…whatever you like
• 1 small onion or ½ a large onion, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 cup of diced fresh tomatoes (I like grape or plum tomatoes for this)
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped, sliced, diced, whatever (depends on how much time you have and how fancy you want to get)
• 1 tbs extra virgin coconut or grapeseed oil to sauté your veggies
• Filtered water (enough to fill the pot)
• Juice from one lemon (Meyer lemons work great too)
• A bouquet of fresh herbs: I like a little rosemary and a little thyme…about a teaspoon of the leaves or needles of each…more than that can be over- powering.
• 1 teaspoon each of chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley and basil
• 2 bay leaves
• Freshly ground salt and pepper to taste
• ½ cup of pre-soaked or sprouted quinoa (any variety)
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