Recipe: Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

This recipe for Chicken and Gnocchi Soup is a copycat recipe for Olive Garden’s popular soup. I ran across many recipes, all virtually the same, for this soup and decided to give it a try… not sure where it originated from… the base is similar to another one of my soups so I knew it would be good.

But alas… I didn’t have whole milk or half and half or heavy cream in the house… it was a rainy cold day.. perfect for soup and not so perfect for running out to the store…

I decided instead to substitute evaporated milk…. which turned out better anyway.. lower fat and just as creamy… perfect!

TIPS

Since I decided to use the substitution… that’s how I wrote the recipe.. you can use heavy cream if you would like.

If you prefer a thicker soup you can add about a tablespoon of cornstarch that is mixed in some of the soup then poured back into the pot.

The soup is only slightly creamy… it really is very light tasting, not heavy at all.

I cooked my chicken breasts in chicken broth with an onion (cut-up), a handful of small carrots, 1 stalk of celery (cut-up), 2 teaspoons of dried thyme and a bay leaf. After removing the cooked chicken breasts, I saved the veggies for another use and poured the chicken broth into a measuring cup… I used the cooked broth again in my soup..

I chopped the onion and garlic together in my mini chopper, which not only made it easy, but very finely chopped.

I know the Olive Garden soup uses shredded carrot but I sliced my small carrots instead.

I used frozen chopped spinach… fresh spinach would be even more flavorful.

A perfect soup for a rainy day … it made a great supper with some fresh bread.

I hope you try it!







Recipe: Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

All you need:

1 cup diced cooked chicken breasts
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups evaporated milk
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ cup finely diced celery
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
½ cup sliced carrots
½ teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup frozen chopped spinach
1 (16 oz) pkg. gnocchi
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese

All you need to do:

In a large pot heat the olive oil over medium heat.

Add the onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Cook until onions are soft.

Add the chicken broth, dried thyme and spinach. Heat until carrots are cooked (about 15 minutes).

Turn heat up and bring to a boil.

Add the gnocchi and cook as directed on package (mine took about 4 minutes to cook).

Reduce the heat to medium again and add the evaporated milk. Cook an additional 5 minutes.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour into bowls and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.