Creamy Veggie Chicken Soup

Eli often enjoys reading a book in the high chair while waiting for dinner. 🙂

Tonight I again tweaked a soup recipe and I think it is finally to my liking.   This is so yummy and tastes similar to a Cream of Broccoli soup you might get at a Panera type restaurant.  Have you noticed a trend yet?  Panera is my favorite restaurant.  🙂  I tried to take a picture for you all but failed miserably.  Trust me it looks and tastes great! 😉  Enjoy the picture of Eli instead. 

Ingredients:

• In a large saucepan melt 2 T. butter.  Add 1 small chopped onion and 1/2 cup green pepper.  Cook for a few minutes and then add in the following:
• 1 16 oz bag of California Medley style frozen vegetables: includes carrots, broccoli, cauliflower.  I buy mine from Aldi. I think it is around $1 and they taste great!  (Sometimes it is even cheaper to use the frozen medley than to buy the fresh vegetables and cut them up.  This also saves a little time if you are in a hurry.)
• 1 1/2 cups of peeled, chopped potatoes.
• 3 cups of chicken stock (preferably homemade). 
• 4 t. chicken bouillon or 4 chicken bouillon cubes.
• 1 c. cut up cooked chicken.  I have also made this soup without the chicken. (I needed to use some up some chicken that had been in the fridge a while so into the soup pot it went.)
• 1 t. salt
• 2 t. garlic powder
• liberal dash of fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 t. each of ground mustard, paprika, and coriander.  If you don’t have all these don’t worry about it just skip them or add your favorite seasonings in place. 
• Bring mixture to a boil and simmer covered about 20 minutes.  (I like to stick a fork in the veggies to make sure they are tender.) 
• Mix together: 1 can of coconut milk and 4 T. whole wheat flour.  Add into the soup mixture.  Simmer uncovered for about 20 more minutes or until the soup has thickened to your liking.  (You could use 1 3/4 c. milk instead of the coconut milk.) 
• Stir in 1 1/2 c. of cheese (I used a mixture of cheddar and mozzarella since that’s what I had on hand.) 

Enjoy!  I didn’t measure but I would guess this recipe makes approximately 2 quarts or maybe more.  If you would rather use fresh veggies use any combination of broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower in place of the medley.  (In case you are wondering you can’t taste the cauliflower.)  I would aim for about 4-5 cups of veggies.  I don’t think it would matter if the majority of the veggies were broccoli or cauliflower.  One might notice a lot of carrots though.  Well at least my hubby would.  We still haven’t made a Carrot soup-it sounds awful to us both! 🙂

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