30 Minute Chicken and Vegetable Soup for One

This is something I always have the makings for in my refrigerator and my freezer. It is sort of a “leftovers” soup. I vary the vegetables depending on which ones I have on hand and I always have individually frozen chicken breasts in the freezer. This is a very good way to use up some fresh vegetables that may need using up before they go bad. Which spices I use in it somewhat depends on which veggies I used, today’s soup had a lot of garden fresh tomatoes in it as well as some fresh spinach and mushrooms so I went with garlic and Italian herbs. I just sauteed some garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil and added the fresh spinach and wilted it down, I did have to eat some of it before I made the soup because I love spinach with olive oil, garlic and a touch of salt and fresh ground pepper. I then added some carrots, celery, mushrooms and tomatoes. When I got the soup base tasting how I wanted it I threw in a small boneless and skinless chicken breast straight from the freezer bag and let it poach in the soup for about 10 minutes until it was cooked and I took my spoon and the tender breast easily shredded into bite size pieces right in the pan. I cooked it about 5 minutes longer so each shredded piece of chicken absorbed the tomatoes and garlic and tasted the soup to see if it needed any more spicing, it didn’t so I dished it up and ate it. One pan, a cutting board, a knife and a spoon, and really good fresh soup in about 30 minutes with 10 minutes of actual work.

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 cup fresh spinach leaves
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 chopped carrot
1 stalk chopped celery
8 mushrooms, sliced
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
6 cherry tomatoes
1 cup water
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon
1 teaspoon Italian Spices
½ teaspoon Cajun Spice
1 small boneless skinless chicken breast
Saute the garlic in olive oil for a minute and add the spinach, stir it for a couple of minutes until it wilts down. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and taste. Add carrot, celery, mushrooms and tomatoes and stir together with the spinach and add the water, bouillon and spices. Bring to a simmer and taste, adjust spices to your personal taste. Add the frozen chicken breast and cover the soup and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Either shred the chicken breast in the pot or take it out and cut it up and put it back. Eat. Leftover noodles or rice can go in also if you have any.