Chicken Pot Pie Soup

One of the most common misperceptions about adopting a new healthy eating lifestyle is that you’ll have to eat raw kale, and other boring foods that you don’t like in order to reach your new health goals. Nothing against raw kale, but trust me you don’t have to eat food you don’t like just to be healthy. I am a lover of all food, and I think food is meant to be enjoyed and savoured and not just tolerated. That’s just one of the reasons why I am such a huge fan of this Chicken Pot Pie Soup recipe. It’s rich, creamy, stick-to-your-ribs filling and a total crowd pleaser.

The white potato has been given a bit of a bad reputation in the past mainly due to it’s high carbohydrate content and the fear around eating carbs and gaining weight. But if we take a step back and look at the big picture, a potato is a whole food containing nutrients and fibre and shouldn’t be thought of as something to avoid all together. Now before you go thinking I’m giving you a free pass to go and enjoy endless amounts of creamy mashed potatoes and gravy hear me out. I’m not suggesting that the white potato be a main staple in your weekly diet while skipping out on trying other vegetable varieties. I think it’s hugely important to make your plate as colourful as you can, add dark leafy greens whenever possible and try as many new vegetable varieties as you can find. If you’re doing this on a weekly basis you shouldn’t have any problems indulging in some homemade, whole food, Chicken Pot Pie Soup.

So let’s talk about this recipe. The first time I made I was so close to ruining it because I didn’t realize the perfect creamy texture came from blending some of the cooked potatoes with coconut milk. This is genius! Be sure to follow the directions carefully if you want the real deal. The herbs and spices are also important, but if you don’t have fresh herbs on hand you can use dried herbs instead. Typically it’s about one third of the amount. So instead of 1 tablespoon of fresh sage, you can use 1 teaspoon of dried. I’ve only tried it so far with the dried herbs but I bet the fresh make it that much better. I also recommend using both white and dark meat and to boil it as the recipe suggests. If you do this, you’re basically making two recipes at once because you’ll have a beautiful chicken broth when you’re done. Feel free to add whatever seasonings and other vegetables to the water cooking the chicken for added flavour and nutrients to your broth. I like using celery, garlic, onion and washed but unpeeled organic carrots. Once the chicken is cooked you can simply strain out the vegetables and you’ll have the perfect broth ready for another recipe. I like to store my broth in glass mason jars and freeze it until I need it, but just be sure you leave a couple of inches at the top of your jar to allow for expanding when it freezes.

I wish I could take credit for this recipe because it’s so perfect but it came from MyHeartBeets.com and you can find the recipe here.