Easy Chicken Soup with Beet Greens
By: Christine Willmsen
Published: Thursday, January 17, 2013 - 10:37am

Ingredients




1 chicken breast cut in large chunks or ¼ of chicken that’s leftover
½ onion chopped
2 cans vegetable or chicken stock
1 tomato chopped
1 can garbanzo beans
2 cups beet greens, thickly sliced, without the thick stems
3 tablespoons of minced cilantro
1 teaspoon of both salt and pepper
Optional: slices of avocado, lime slice and hot sauce

Preparation

1 Cook chicken and onion in saucepan with stock, salt and pepper on medium low heat until tender or falling off the bones, about 30 minutes. 2 Then add tomato, garbanzo beans and beet greens to soup and cook on low for another 8-10 minutes. 3 Top the soup with cilantro, sprinkles of sea salt and slices of avocado. 4 If available squeeze a slice of lime on top to give the soup a bright flavor. If you like a little heat, feel free to add a couple drops of hot sauce.

About

On cold days, there’s nothing better than a large, hot bowl of chicken soup to thaw your bones. I have a great twist on chicken soup that helps you use left over chicken. The twist in this soup is adding beet leaves. As The Solo Cook, www.thesolocook.com I often create recipes that are great for one person. When I looked in my garden and pulled some of my beets out of it recently, I knew I wanted to some how create a recipe that used those colorful green and red tops. Many people buy their beets, cut off the tops, and roast the red jewels in the oven. But don’t dump the leafy tops in the compost. They contain valuable nutrients and are perfect for this chicken soup. If you don’t have beet tops, you can use rainbow chard or spinach as a substitute. This quick soup will make enough for dinner and then lunch the next day. With chicken and garbanzo beans this is a protein-packed soup that’s filling despite it not having noodles or dumplings.