10.30.10x2

Per request of my old roommate and long time friend, Ninja, I've decided that at least once a week, I would post something that I've cooked or baked that week....Sometimes I dream about being a foodie blogger..some days I think I could do it..some days I realize I'm not that good with my words. And..I totally forget to take pictures, which is really the whole point of a food blog
...you lure readers in with tantalizing photos of a perfectly roasted turkey or a flawless cheesecake..
good thing there is the world wide web...otherwise you'd just have to imagine how yummy this soup was...
Now, Ninja and I are kind of in the same boat, both of our husbands are gone (granted, I think she wins, with having Kenny deployed in Iraq, while mine is playing music at a bar in So. Cal. tonight)..anyway, cooking for one can be quite depressing, full of salads and grilled cheese. Or you make a dish the way you would to serve 4-6 people, then you're eating that dish for the next 5 days. . .Good thing, Ninja and I are both good cooks, so we don't mind eating our delicious cooking for days on end (and we're both too frugally minded to even contemplate throwing out leftovers--especially homemade leftovers!
so, enough with the writing (see, I just blab..)
we'll call this Hearty Vegetable and Chicken Soup..the original recipe, I think I saw in an old Rachael Ray magazine of mine..and it was called Hearty Chicken and Vegetable Soup..but with the amount of veggies I put in mine, it only made sense to make veggies the star. I think the thing that puts this soup in a class above other Chicken & Vegetable soups, is that you roast the tomatoes...seriously, don't skip this step.
ingredients:
1 lb. plum tomatoes, quartered lengthwise
extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 onions, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
5-6 carrots, peeled & chopped
1 lb. potatoes (I used fingerling but yukon gold would be delicious too) peeled & chopped
1 zucchini halved, and sliced into moons (I used 1/2 a reg. zuc. and a yellow zuc. b/c that's what I had)
4 cups chicken broth (normally I have homemade, but this time I used a box Imagine Organic Free Range--which is my favorite boxed broth)
1/2 lb green beans, trimmed and halved (I used frozen, b/c once again, it's what I had)
a handful of parsley, minced

First step.....
Heat your oven to 500, yes this is hot, but you're going to roast the tomatoes quick-style. Place the tomatoes on a parchment lined baking sheet and drizzle with evoo (extra virgin olive oil) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Slide those puppies into the oven for 20 minutes. *Around the 10 minute mark I noticed quite a bit of smoke coming from my oven...terrified that my smoke alarm was going off--note, it's not a bad thing for smoke alarms to go off, but this is the first time I've lived in a place that has sprinklers too--and I don't know HOW much smoke it takes to set those babies off* Anyway, the parchment just got a little charred is all and the tomatoes looked delicious. When they're done, put them in a bowl, with any juices that accumulated too.
Second step....
Did you chop all your veggies? You could totally do them now if you wanted, while the tomatoes are roasting. In the mean time, heat your soup pot over medium heat with 1 tbs. of evoo and add the chicken, cooking for 10 minutes, flipping just once. Oh yes, season with salt and pepper, I always figure that goes without saying.. and I imagine that the chicken would be just as good if you roasted it as well, I might try that next time. Anyway, once the chicken is done, set it on a plate and let it cool for at least 10 minutes, so it's cool enough to handle. I shred mine b/c I like the texture of that better in soup, as opposed to chopping it..but do whatever you'd like. That's the beauty of soups :)
Third step...
In the same pot you cooked your chicken in, heat another tbs. of evoo over medium and add your onion, cooking it till soft...about 5 minutes or so (at this point...I thought about putting in some garlic, because I tend to put garlic in everything, but decided against it, wanting all the other veggies' flavors to shine. So after the onion is soft, throw in the carrot, celery, and potatoes (oh yes, don't forget the salt and pepper back when you're cooking up the onions!) Now, you're probably wondering why I didn't just put the carrots and celery in at the same time as the onions, well, good question...going the traditional route of the mirepoix (the holy trinity of the culinary world), you get a lot of soft textures, and I wanted to have a little variance in my soup........
anyway..back to the soup.
So after you add the carrots and what not, go ahead and throw in your broth and cook for about 5 minutes, just simmering.
Fourth step...
Put in your green beans, zucchini, and tomatoes w/their juices, and let this simmer for about 10 minutes, until your potatoes are tender, and then add your shredded chicken (oh yea, I forgot to mention that step...shred your chicken once it's cool :) and your minced parsley.
Then I let it sit on medium low heat for another 10 minutes to let all the flavors blend. So there ya go..
The only thing I would say would make this better is.....
a crusty loaf of bread for dipping
a few friends to share
an apple pie for dessert
loves-a.