My hometown of Ottawa, Canada has been in a deep freeze for the entire month of February and I can honestly admit that I have been hibernating. The average temperature this February has been -30 Celsius or -22 Fahrenheit. This winter is going to go down in the record books as one of the coldest yet I am sure.
So what does one make to stay warm during these very cold nights? Why Chicken and Gnocchi soup of course. It is my take on Olive Garden’s soup but with much less cream and way more veggies. It is simple to make and tastes delicious. For an extra punch of heat I put sriracha sauce in mine.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 11/2 cups finely diced onion
- 3/4 cup finely diced celery
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 3/4 cup of carrot diced finely
- 2 tbs of all-purpose flour
- 1 cup of 10% cream (half and half)
- 2 900 gram cartons of chicken broth
- Salt/pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Sriracha sauce
- 8-10 cups of fresh baby spinach
- 2 cup diced cooked chicken (you can use a rotisserie chicken, I used chicken thighs)
- 1 (16-ounce/500g) package ready-to-use gnocchi
INSTRUCTIONS:
Melt the butter into the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion becomes translucent.
Whisk in the flour and cook for about 1 minute. Whisk in the chicken broth. Simmer until thickened. Whisk in the half-and-half.
Stir in the onion and garlic powder, nutmeg, spinach, chicken. Cut each gnocchi into 2 or 3 pieces and boil gnocchi according to package (min was 2 minutes) drain and add to soup.
Simmer until the soup is heated through. Before serving, season with additional salt, if necessary and sriracha.
