Butternut Squash Quinoa Chicken Soup
Okay, so you’ve made one of my fabulous Dutch Oven Roasted Chicken, and then you followed up with batch of this amazingly delicious Chicken Bone Broth…
Awesome! Now there’s only one thing left to do, and that would be to whip up a nice big pot of soul-warming chicken soup!
When it comes to chicken soup, I used to think that I was a die-hard fan of Chicken Noodle…
HA! That was until I got to taste this Butternut Squash Quinoa Chicken Soup! I’m telling you, this thing is so good, you’ll want Fall and Winter to never go away, just so you can enjoy a great big bowl every day…
The contrast between the meaty, chunky pieces of chicken, the soft and creamy, somewhat sweet chunks of butternut squash and the millions of “pop-in-your-mouth” little grains of quinoa is completely sublime!
Add a handful of fresh arugula to the lot, for a bit of added color and texture (oh and yeah, vitamins and minerals and all that healthy stuff, you know) and you’ve got yourself the best darn bowl of chicken soup in the entire world.
And the best part is it’s ready in just minutes!
Trust me, once you’ve had a taste of it, you’ll want to roast chicken upon chicken upon chicken, just so you can make this soup over and over again!
Or hey, maybe you could try it with turkey, too, for a change…
To start, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil (or even better yet, some of that leftover fat scraped from the top of your chicken broth, why not?) in a medium stockpot set over medium heat and add the onion and salt.
Cook until softened, fragrant and slightly caramelized — about 3 minutes — then add the butternut squash and continue cooking for about 1 minute.
Again, if you help in cutting that butternut squash quickly and efficiently, check out this quick video. It might come in real handy!
Throw in the uncooked quinoa, chicken broth and water; bring to boil then simmer uncovered until the quinoa is completely cooked, about 15 minutes.
About that quinoa, make sure that you rinse it well before you add it to the soup in order to remove all traces of saponin — quinoa’s natural coating — which can make the seeds taste somewhat bitter or soapy. Although most of the time, boxed quinoa actually comes pre-rinsed, you better give it a second rinse at home, just to play it safe.
Once the quinoa is fully cooked, kill the heat and add the cooked chicken and arugula to the pot.
Give the soup a quick stir, cover and let it sit for a few minutes until the arugula is completely wilted and the chicken is heated all the way through.
Adjust seasoning if necessary and serve, piping hot.
And now, just try and stop at this one bowl…
Butternut Squash Quinoa Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 3 cups butternut squash, cut into 1" cubes
- 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
- 1/2 tsp salt, I use Himalayan salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 cups chicken bone broth
- 3 cups water
- 3 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite size chunks
- 1 cup arugula
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a medium stockpot set over medium heat and add the onion and salt. Cook until softened and slightly caramelized, about 3 minutes.
- Add the butternut squash and cook for about 1 minute, then throw in the uncooked quinoa (make sure you rinsed it well first), chicken broth and water; bring to boil then simmer uncovered until the quinoa is completely cooked, about 15 minutes.
- Kill the heat, add the cooked chicken and arugula. Give the soup a quick stir, cover and let it sit for a few minutes until the arugula is completely wilted and the chicken is heated through.
- Adjust seasoning as necessary and serve hot.
Nutrition
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4 Comments on “Butternut Squash Quinoa Chicken Soup”
this recipe looks so good I’m going to have to try it. I am just starting to get into making my own soups and this one sounds perfect. Thanks.
Just roasted my first butternut squash the other day and was surprised at how easy it was. This sounds like a great recipe to try!
I’m going to make this for dinner tonight! I’m going to make it on the stove instead of the slow cooker, though. Thanks for the lovely dinner inspiration! 🙂 Hope you enjoy! I think this should be easy to adapt to cooking on the stove. Love to hear how it turns out. I’m Chef Corey from Family Fresh Meals. This crockpot recipe is so unique! Love it :)I just started a new recipe Linky called Sunday Funday: Recipe of the Week.This recipe would be perfect for the first week theme CROCKPOT.Hope come join the fun. Hope you stop by and join!
Ragerds:Moses Brodin
Hi!!
Love your post. It’s really amazing & helpful too. Being foodie i keep trying new dishes i tried this recipe & it turned out to be really tasty . Keep sharing 🙂
Thank You & Regards
Ankita