Chicken Noodle Soup with an Italian Twist

Monday was a bit of a scavenger hunt in the kitchen when it came time to make dinner.  I had nothing planned and I REALLY didn’t want to go to the grocery store….so I started foraging around the pantry and the fridge and freezer.  It’s amazing what you can find when you know you need to make dinner and don’t want to shop.  The first thing I figured out was that I wanted to make soup.  I had everything I needed to make traditional chicken noodle soup, but I really felt. like something with a little more pizazz…so a little more foraging and I had it.  I would make chicken noodle soup with an italian twist!

How was I going to do this, you ask?  Well, I already had shredded chicken in the freezer, so the chicken part was taken care of.  I also had a jar of roasted red peppers and caramelized onions in the freezer, as well as white wine, garlic, cannellini beans and a bountiful supply of canned tomatoes.  So along with the usual suspects for chicken noodle soup (chicken stock, carrots, celery, pasta), I was set.  I now had a plan!

The end result was pretty darn tasty.  I put some red pepper flakes into it, so it had a little bit of zing to it.  It made a nice big pot of soup, so we are now reaping the rewards and have a lot of leftovers for lunch.

<NOTE> If you decide to make this yourself but don’t have any cooked chicken or caramelized onions on hand, I have a couple of tips for you.  For the chicken, you could either use a rotisserie chicken, or you could cut up a pound of boneless chicken breasts.  Add the uncooked chicken to the soup and it will poach in the broth.  For the onions, just cut up a raw onion and saute it along with the carrots and celery.

• 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 large stalk celery, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
• 1 cup caramelized onions, chopped
• 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (more if you want it spicier)
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/2 tsp salt, divided
• 1 tsp pepper, divided
• 2 ( 15 ounce) cans cannellini beans
• 1 (15 ounce) can plain diced tomatoes
• 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil , garlic and oregano
• 3 cups cooked chicken, shredded
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup short cut pasta

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