Chicken-Parsnip Soup

Sunday used to be my day to spend in the kitchen, and I would always make a soup. I'm trying to get back to that, at least the soup part, anyway.

I stumbled across this recipe for Chicken-Parsnip Soup when browsing the Cooking Light web site. I liked that it was a different, non-traditional chicken soup, and using garbanzo beans was interesting to me. The result - one of my new favorite soups! Flavorful, light, but filling at the same time.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 2 parsnips, thinly and diagonally sliced
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• 4 oz gourmet mushrooms (I used about 5 white mushrooms, sliced - I think the flavor of porcini or shiitake mushrooms would be too heavy for this soup)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2.5 cups fat free, lower sodium chicken broth (I used 4 cups low sodium and omitted the water)
• 1 cup chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 c shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast (I didn't do this; instead I seasoned a boneless, skinless chicken breast with a touch of Kosher salt, pepper, and thyme and roasted it until done, then shredded it)
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp hot sauce (I omitted this)
• 1 thyme sprig (I used a pinch of dried thyme as well as the thyme I used to season the chicken breast)
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Directions

• Heat oil in a large pot
• Add shallots, garlic, mushrooms, and parsnips; saute 3 minutes
• Add broth, chickpeas, chicken, pepper, salt, and thyme. Bring to a simmer and cook 10 minutes or until parsnips are tender.
• Remove from heat and stir in parsley.