Chicken soup is a real cold weather comfort food. We make it in the fall as the summers light starts to fade away. The cold gusty weather is a perfect reason for making a hot bowl of chicken soup.

Here's my recipe.

Ingredients.

2 cups of cooked, boned and cubed chicken

2 cups of greens such as turnip greens or spinach

1 16 oz container of chicken soup stock

1/2 large red bell pepper, diced.

1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms.

I cup chopped onion. I usually use a white onion for this soup.

1 cup of corn niblets or frozen corn

1 cup chopped celery

8 oz canned garbanzo beans

2 tbs Balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 tbs of dried garlic flakes or 2 cloves of garlic thinly sliced

1 tbs of paprika

2 tbs of olive oil

1 tsp of sage

1 tsp of rosemary

1/2 tsp of ground cumin

Pepper to taste.

2-3 cups of water

Start the soup by mixing the Balsamic vinegar and broth together with the water, the oil, the rosemary, cumin, sage, paprika and garlic flakes, and bring mixture to a boil. Add in the chicken. Reduce heat and after about 4 minutes add in onions, diced red pepper, chopped celery, corn, mushrooms and garbanzo beans. Cook for about 40 minutes at a simmer, after 20 minutes add in the chopped greens. Do not add salt! This soup will have plenty of sodium in it from the soup stock.

This soup is extremely healthy and with crusty buttered french bread the flavor is divine. Oh, my! Heavenly! I had 3 bowls. The soup has a very zippy flavor. Perfect for those cold fall days!

When I cook I try to avoid adding extra sodium. There's plenty of sodium in the soup stock and some in garbanzo beans as well. Believe me this soup needs nothing else added to it.

But I always experiment and I'm sure you will too. Try adding some lemon juice and tamari sauce if you want a slightly oriental taste. Substitute some fresh sliced green scallions instead of the white onions. They would also go great in this soup. I'm always pretty "creative" when I follow a recipe, because I know exactly the flavor that pleases me the most. Most of all enjoy the cooking and the eating!

Learn more about this author, Leonard Keigher.
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