Broccoli, Chicken, Quinoa Soup

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked quinoa

5 cups water

1 cup chicken broth (or an additional cup of water if you do not have any)

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped mushroom

2 cups chopped broccoli

2 cups diced cooked organic chicken

4 T flour (I used freshly ground soft white wheat.)

1 T olive oil

2 cloves of garlic - diced

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

salt and pepper to taste

In a large stock pot, saute carrots, onion, celery, mushroom, broccoli, and garlic until just slightly tender.  Add water, chicken stock, chicken, quinoa, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper.  Simmer on medium.  When the liquid has been heated, remove 1 cup of the broth (in a measuring cup or small bowl) and with a wisk or fork add 4 tablespoons of flour and stir rapidly.  This will begin to thicken.  Slowly add this liquid back to the soup, stirring as you pour it.  Continue to allow the soup to simmer until flavors have had time to blend together.  Serve immediately or turn the soup off and and let it sit, continuing to season, until you are ready to eat. (I allowed mine to simmer for about 5 minutes then turned it off.  We ate it about an hour later.)

I served this with homemade bread.  A fresh salad would be great with it as well.  You could double this recipe and freeze the leftover portion in order to have a quick meal to pull out of the freezer.

You could easily add different vegetables or leave out the ones you do not have on hand.  I had several leftover organic chicken legs.  I used the broth I had saved from baking my chicken and chopped the chicken up.  (Note - I always add more water to the chicken I bake in order to have broth to reserve for something later.  You can freeze the broth until you are ready to use it!)

Soups make an easy way to use up what you have in the refrigerator.  This soup was created by what I had leftover from the week.  Try creating your own recipe sometime.  Just take the leftovers that sound like they might be good together!