On a cold winter night, when it feels like Rebecca and everyone around her is fending off a cold, Rebecca will make this "penicillin soup." It is simple and quick to prepare, healthy and nourishing from the veg, yet still filling due to the velvety, thickened broth and added pasta. Bonus - the ingredients are all pantry and fridge staples in her household, so it's a dinner she can also always count on even when it seems like she is out of food at home and needs to make a trip to the grocery. Give it a try, and maybe this will become a new winter staple in your home, too!
| Servings: 6 |
Prep: 5 minutes
|
Cook: 35 minutes |
Ingredients
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 2 stalks celery
- 2 medium carrots
- 1-2 cloves garlic
- 6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 cup dried pastina
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Roughly chop the onion, celery, carrot, and garlic. No need to be precise - it is all going to get wizzed up later anyway!
- Add chicken or vegetable broth with all your chopped veg in a medium soup pot (the Staub 4-Quart Dutch Oven we carry in the shop is perfect!), bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer
- Simmer for about 20 minutes, or until your veg is all softened
- Using an immersion blender right in the same pot, blend until your veg is completely broken down and has become one with the broth (alternatively, transfer soup, in batches, to a blender and wiz up until completely smooth then return to soup pot)
- Add dried pastina to blended broth and cook according to the package instructions, around 8-10 minutes more
- Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and serve
Rebecca's Notes
- This is the baseline recipe - you can bulk this up by adding shredded chicken or wilting down spinach at the end, or jazz it up with other flavors like turmeric, ginger, or Calabrian chile paste at the very beginning. So many variations depending on what you're feeling!
- Garnishes are also endless - saltine or oyster crackers, fresh lemon juice, parmesan cheese, chili crisp, pesto, or olive oil come to mind
- Pastina is any type of mini pasta - Rebecca has recently been finding it in a pearl shape at the regular grocery store. Orzo would work just fine as a substitute, too! If you don't want the cooked-off starch of the pasta released directly into your soup, you could also always cook the pasta in a separate pot then add to the soup. But that means another dirty dish, which your dish-washer (in this case, Chad) may not appreciate! Plus, Rebecca doesn't mind the extra thickening of the broth that the cooked-off starch lends.
- You could go to the effort of sauteeing down the veg before adding the broth, but... why add the extra minutes to what is supposed to be a quick and simple recipe?