"Stir Fry" Soup

Ingredients:
-7c water
-2TB soy sauce
-4 chicken tenderloins so about 2 chicken breasts
-a whole pack of sliced mushrooms 
-3TB butter
-1 carrot mandolined thin
-about 1/8 c onion
-1/4 c mixed sweet red n green peppers mostly red
-1/4c frozen corn
-half cup of rice
-1/4 tsp ginger
-dash of thyme n garlic
-Zest of half a lime 
-salt n pepper to taste 

Drop the water, chicken, soy sauce, butter, ginger, and thyme, and bring it up to a boil, letting it start cooking for about 15 minutes or so. Then chop all the veggies and add to the mix, lower the temperature just a notch and cover. I used my mandoline to thin slice the veggies.
 
I actually really enjoyed the mushroom amount, so I didn't regret that at all.  My original plans were to just use half the pack and save the remaining for a pizza that I want to make tomorrow, but I got on such a roll with dumping things in that it resulted in all of the mushrooms being added.

Let that boil covered n lowered for another 10-15 then pull out the chicken n shred it with forks. When you pull the chicken out, taste your broth and add salt and pepper as needed. You can add more soy sauce if you want instead of salt, but I like how the balance of this turned out. The mushrooms and soy sauce worked especially well to give the broth some richness. Drop the chicken back in and add the rice and lime zest, cover it, let it go another 10 or so. During this time, I piddled around making bread dough for tomorrow's pizza that will now be pesto and bacon instead of mushroom haha. I needed to use up some pesto anyway.

This soup lends itself perfectly to a bread bowl.  If I did not have a portfolio review tomorrow, you better believe that I would have a bread bowl done for lunch before Stats class.  Darn myself for signing up for this timing!

Really though, I am SOUPER (teehee) impressed with this soup and I always like soup better after it has been in the fridge.  Leftover soup is way better than fresh soup in almost all cases (especially chili), so I am pretty excited to see what this will taste like tomorrow.  I find more and more that I love soy sauce, ginger, and lime combinations.  Eventually I am going to have to learn the art of marinading things I believe.

Or I will just stick with soup.  Either way.  This recipe can easily be halved if you do not want such a large pot of soup.  I like to eat mine off and on for a few days and freeze leftovers.  You never know when you are going to get sick out of nowhere and a relatively quick defrost on a bowl of soup might be just the thing that fixes you up.  Plus, I would much rather have fresh soup frozen than soup from a can any day of the week. 

The second I learn how to make quality tomato soup, my can buying days might come to a rapid end.  The best part about these soups is that they get me to eat my veggies that I may otherwise ignore :).  That $1 bag of carrots is turning out to be quite the quality investment, and may just make my list of recurring purchases.

For the amount of meals that you can get out of each pot, soup is a great way to stretch ingredients, and a pretty good healthy option that does not require expensive purchases.  Soup and my college budget are getting along very nicely.

Happy crafting! Pin It Now!