Lemon & Herb Chicken Soup
Soup in summer? It's usually an autumn winter thing right? Not for me, I love to eat soup year round. Just last week I was making minestrone in 29c heat, it was delicious. This soup is light, zingy and fresh. The lemony base and fresh herbs are a delicious combination. The best thing? This soup is great for using up leftovers. We often buy whole cooked chickens, mainly because our oven is so temperamental and I nearly poisoned us Christmas before last. So I always save some meat, or split the chicken up and make lots of different dishes.
You can easily replace the chicken with a selection of different mushrooms or some tofu to make it a vegetarian soup. Herbs are great at this time of year and nothing is more satisfying than going to pick them fresh from your garden. This soup calls for fresh thyme and basil, but if you are really stuck you can always use a teaspoon of dried herbs.
Lemon & Herb Chicken Soup
Serves: 4Prep time: 10 minsCook time: 15-20 minsTotal time: 25-30 mins
Ingredients
- 100g dried pasta (1 and a 1/4 cups)
- Juice of 2 lemons (around 50ml, 1/4 cup)
- 1 and a half litres of chicken or veg stock (4 & 1/2 cups)
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small brown onion, finely chopped
- 100g of cooked chicken, torn (1 and a 1/4 cups)
- Handful of fresh thyme, leaves picked
- Handful of fresh basil, finely chopped
- Salt & pepper
- Good grating of Parmesan cheese (optional)
Directions
- Add chopped onion, minced garlic and thyme leaves to a pan with 2 tsp olive oil and cook for around 4 mins until softening.
- Add hot stock, pasta and lemon juice. Bring to boil and then simmer for around 15 minutes until pasta is just cooked.
- Add in torn chicken and basil, season to taste.
- Top with cheese if using.