Recipe: Chicken, tomato and vegetable soup with sourdough olive bread

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1/4 cup fennel finely chopped
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground coriander
1 fresh chilli finely chopped (or a sprinkle of cayenne pepper)
500g raw chicken breasts sliced into small bite sized pieces
1/2 stock cube
2L water
1 small tin (170g) tomato paste
2 x 400g tins diced tomatoes
1-2 tsp sugar
500g dried legumes (soup mix), soaked in water overnight and drained
3 carrots sliced
5 leaves kale, sliced, including stems (slice finely)
1 red capsicum diced
1 cup sliced purple cabbage
1/4 cup fresh mixed herbs, chopped roughly
Pepper

Method

Heat the oil in a large deep pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and fennel and saute until soft and translucent. Add paprika, coriander and chilli and stir over low heat until fragrant. Add chicken, stir over heat until just cooked.  Add tinned tomatoes, tomato paste and sugar. Boil water and stir in the stock cube until dissolved. Add to pot, along with legumes, carrots and kale stems. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 20-30 minutes. Skim the surface occasionally. You may need to place the lid on if the mixture is becoming too thick. Add the kale leaves, capsicum and purple cabbage spinach and cook for another 10 minutes or until kale leaves are bright green but soft. Stir in fresh herbs, taste for seasoning, add freshly cracked black pepper. Serve with a slice of toasted sourdough olive bread. Delish!

This recipe is dairy free, low GI and gluten free (without the bread). A rich source of dietary fibre, iron and folate. Remove the chicken to go vegan. 

If you don't have some of the vegetables in the recipe, substitute for whatever you have in the fridge. You can also use canned legumes instead of dried legumes if you don't have time to soak them the night before (just drain your canned legumes first). Also experiment with different herbs & spices as you wish. Enjoy :)

This recipe has been modified from a recipe shared from a close friend. Thank you to Mrs Gilbert and Julie Denat for passing it on!