Monday, May 18, 2009

So Good, I Have To Share


OK. It's official. This is my favorite soup. Period. So I am sharing. It isn't my recipe. It is from the Ellie Krieger cookbook where so many tasty meals are found.

Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo

4 tsp. olive oil
8 oz. chicken breasts, cut into small chunks
salt to taste
1 med. onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 tsp. thyme
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup orzo, whole wheat if possible
2 large eggs
3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
pepper to taste

Heat oil in a soup pot.
Add chicken and season with salt.
Cook through, transfer to a dish, and set aside.


Add remaining oil to pot. Add onion, celery, carrot, and thyme. Cook until vegetables are tender. Add 5 cups of the broth and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to simmer.

Warm the remaining cup of broth until it is hot but not boiling. In a medium bowl beat the eggs. Gradually add the lemon juice while whisking. Add the hot broth to the egg mix and continue to whisk. Add the egg-broth mixture to the soup, stirring well until the soup has thickened. Do not let the soup come to a boil or the egg will cook. Add chicken to pot. Season with salt and pepper.


I love her description of this soup: "It's kind of like the girl-next-door chicken noodle soup that's traveled abroad and returned with an intriguing flair." So true.


I was going to make some bread to go with the soup from THE bread book, but forgot to mix the dough. So I found a recipe for a whole wheat quick bread. I wish I could give credit where credit is due...but I don't know how I stumbled upon it. It was somewhere in the link-maze that we often travel. So I will give credit by saying it's not mine. This is so easy it should be a sin...

Whole Wheat Shiner Quick Bread

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. baking powder
12 oz. bottle of Shiner beer (or your fave)
2 oz. water

Preheat the oven to 375*. Grease a loaf pan. Mix the dry ingredients. Gradually add the beer and water. Mix together. Pour batter into pan. Bake 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Then cool on a wire rack.



Enjoy.

***I wasn't sure about posting a recipe from a cookbook that I hadn't altered in a significant way. I decided to go ahead and share after finding Ellie's recipe published online via cooking magazines and websites.