I recently cooked this meal for my in-laws when they were in Hong Kong and they loved it. This is one of my favourite soup recipes. There are two reasons for this. One is that my husband, who is generally not a big soup fan, loves this meal and will happily devour a bowl of it, no questions asked. Two is that it makes enough that I can freeze the leftovers for use on another night. Combine this with all those vegetables and chicken and what’s not to love?
I adapted this meal from a recipe in Gourmet Traveller magazine (October 2007) by chef Scott Want.
Ingredients
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 200 grams lean bacon, diced
- 3 onions, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 6 stalks of celery, diced
- 500 grams skinless chicken breasts, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic or 3 tsp minced garlic
- 1 x 400 gram can of crushed tomatoes
- 750ml (3 cups) low-sodium chicken stock
- 250 grams (1 cup) small pasta (I use Ditali Lisci by Barilla)
- 150 grams (1 cup) green peas
- 2 zucchini, diced
- 1 x 400 gram can butter beans (or cannellini beans)
- 50 grams baby spinach leaves
- 1 tbs chopped fresh basil leaves
- Finely grated parmesan, to serve
Method
Heat olive oil in large heavy based saucepan over medium-high heat (I find my Le Creuset works really well on a medium heat). Once heated, add bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes or until starting to colour. Add onion, carrot and celery and cook for 10 minutes. Add chicken and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Add tomatoes and stock and season to taste. Bring to the boil then reduce heat to low-medium, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add pasta, peas, zucchini and beans, stir to combine, increase heat to medium-high and cook, covered, for 10-12 minutes or until pasta is cooked al dente. Remove from the heat, add spinach and basil and stir. Ladle into bowls and served sprinkled with parmesan.
Serves 6
