Chicken Tomato Bean Soup Recipe

Last night we had chicken tomato bean soup for supper. I love its delicious aroma as it spends the afternoon simmering on the stove. This is a recipe I like to make on Thursdays, the day my Bible study ladies meet, for I can get everything done ahead of time and just let it simmer while we study - and talk - and visit - and enjoy one another's company - and pray. (More about the ladies' Bible study later.)

Some of the ingredients for this soup come from our garden: tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, potatoes, parsnips, and rutabaga. I was going to plant garlic in October, but by then the rest of the garden was in the cleaning-off stage and I totally forgot about planting garlic.

I've also considered raising chickens - for meat and for eggs, and I could probably put them in the 18' x 71' dog pen which almost never gets used by the dogs. But I can't imagine chicken meat being tender if the chickens have spent their days in terror, running and fluttering inside the pen as the dogs chase them from the outside perimeter. And they would, of course.

I'm not going to bother to try to train my 9 year old German Shepherd and 10 year old Shepherd/Chow/Lab to leave chickens alone. I've heard that you actually can teach old dogs new tricks, but this one seems quite unreasonable, quite against the nature of Shepherds.

So here's the soup recipe. I think you'll like it!

CHICKEN/TOMATO/BEAN SOUP:

4 cans of petite diced tomatoes OR 1 quart home-canned tomatoes

2 large (13 oz.) cans Hormel chicken breast, drained OR 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

1 qt. Kitchen Basics chicken broth (no additives or preservatives, the only broth I'll use)

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained

3 ribs celery, diced

1 large onion, diced

1 large jalapeno, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 small-medium potatoes, cubed

3 parsnips, pared and diced

4 carrots, pared and sliced

1/2 rutabaga, pared and diced

1 t.+ cumin

1 t.+ coriander

1 t. coarse, black pepper

Set salt shaker and cayenne shaker on the table for those who may want it.

Stir all ingredients together in large stockpot. I use my 8.5 qt. stainless. Bring to a boil, stir again, then turn down to low in order to simmer for four hours.

I think this would serve at least 10 people if they're not greedy. Kevin and I tend to be greedy when it comes to this soup. It's a wonderful soup to have on a cold winter day, and one that makes it difficult to put down your spoon and walk away from the table!

My husband, sitting as his desk nearby as I'm writing this, just said, 'Judy, Misty's chewing something.' I leaned down to pick up the paper she was chewing on (she's always under my desk when I'm at my desk) and what I found were the last shreds of my chicken/tomato/bean soup recipe! Good thing I had just typed it out on this blog! But poor Misty. I hope the recipe had a drop or two of soup spilled on it so at least some good came from ingesting it.