Here’s a more casual, easy-to-follow version of your lemony chicken soup recipe:
First, gather your ingredients. You’ll need:
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 3 diced carrots (peel ’em first!)
- Half a diced onion
- 3 minced garlic cloves
- 8 to 10 cups of chicken broth (depending on how brothy you like your soup)
- 1 cup of whole wheat orzo
- About 3 cups of cooked chicken (shredded rotisserie chicken works great)
- 3 eggs
- Juice from 3 to 4 lemons (should be about half a cup)
- A handful of fresh spinach
- 1 and a half teaspoons of salt
- Plenty of freshly ground pepper
- As much fresh dill as you can handle
Now, let’s get cooking!
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Base: Heat up a large soup pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. Toss in the carrots, onion, and garlic, and sauté them until they’re fragrant and tender. This should take about 10 minutes. Be careful not to burn the garlic!
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Orzo: Pour in the broth and bring it to a simmer. Add the orzo and let it cook until it softens. Stir in the chicken and then remove the pot from the heat.
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Eggs: In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and lemon juice. You want to warm up this mixture slowly to avoid scrambling the eggs. Gradually add a scoop of the soup into the egg mixture, then slowly pour your warmed egg mixture back into the soup pot. Keep stirring constantly until it’s smooth and creamy.
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Final touches: Stir in the spinach, salt, pepper, and dill. Adjust the seasonings to taste, and voila! Your soup is ready to serve.
A few tips:
- If you prefer a chunkier soup, stick with 8 cups of broth. If you’re a fan of brothy soup, go for 10 cups.
- This soup makes great leftovers, but the orzo might soak up some of the broth. You might need to thin it out a bit when you reheat it.
- Be careful when adding the egg mixture to the soup. If the soup is too hot, the eggs will scramble, and that’s not what we want. To cool down the soup quickly, you can stir in a few ice cubes.
- If you want to make this soup vegetarian, you can replace the chicken with white beans or another vegetarian protein.
Enjoy your homemade lemony chicken soup!
