Kickin' Chicken Soup (naturally gluten-free!)

I should have realized when I was craving soup for three beautiful, sunny days in a row that I was getting sick.  Sun means grilling usually, but not this week.  Soup is usually a winter thing for me, but I couldn't get enough of it.  Miso soup, lentil soup, and then chicken soup.  I love easy soups like this one because they are fast, you can't mess them up, they are totally versatile, they are a great way to use up misc. veggies on hand and they are so light and rewarding.  Plus, Mia loves soup, so it is a great way to pack lots of good nutrients into a quick meal for everyone. 

Easy Chicken Soup (Feeds 2 bigs and 1 little)

2c chicken stock (homemade is best, but otherwise low-sodium)
2   chicken breasts (you could easily substitue tofu or pork or whatever here)
1   celery stalk
1   small zucchini
1   medium carrot (we didn't have any on hand this night, but chicken soup is always best with carrots!)
1c cooked rice (brown preferably) or pasta of your favorite shape
1t  pesto or other fresh herbs (optional)

Directions:

1.  Cut chicken and all veggies into roughly the same size- about 1/2 inch pieces ('cubes' if you must use that word to describe food).  Add the pesto or herbs here if you like.
2.  Bring chicken stock to a low boil and add celery and carrots.
3.  Meanwhile, in seperate pot, bring a quart or so of water to a boil, then put chicken in and cook for ~3 minutes to poach lightly; drain.
4.  Add poached chicken to broth with veggies (keeping at a low boil) and cook for a minute or two.
5.  Add the zucchini and cook for 2 minutes
6.  Add the rice or noodles and cook for another minute then salt/pepper to taste before serving.
7.  Ladel into bowls and maybe top with some pecorino or parmesan for good measure.

Obviously this is always best with a good bread to accompany it.  Let's not kid ourselves, bread needs gluten to be delicious.  However, Great Harvest Bakery makes some pretty good close seconds (especially the one here in West Seattle) and most health food stores will have GF options if you need them. 

Note:  The listed veggies were just the ones we had in the fridge.  You could use anything you wanted to here....  corn, mushrooms, onion, edamame, beans, peas......

Note:  For Mia, I usually toss frozen peas in her bowl, then the soup cooks them just enough while the peas cool the soup

Note:  If the thought of prepping your own chicken tonite doesn't work for you, you could buy a rotisserie chicken at the store and shred it, then just toss that in at the end with the rice/pasta.  The broth would lose some of the delicious chicken-ey flavor, but sometimes the trade is worth it to not touch raw chicken, right?