Your family will love this Chicken Orzo Soup because it’s so simple to make and delicious. I make this soup every time my family has a cold or feeling under the weather. I always have the basic staples for chicken soup on hand so I can make it anytime. My kids loved this soup when they were in school and love it now too. Double the recipe and enjoy this soup all week. Sometimes I add a few red pepper flakes for a spicy kick. It will clear up your sinuses. Trust me.
Ingredients:
6 to 8 cups water (or half chicken broth and half water)
1 chicken leg quarter or breast
1 cup orzo pasta or (any small pasta)
1/2 small onion (diced)
1 garlic clove (diced)
1 or 2 large carrots (sliced)
1 or 2 stalks celery (diced)
2 chicken boullion cubes
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
parsley and red pepper flakes for garnish
Preparation:
Bring water or broth to a boil in a large pan. Add the chicken, onion, garlic, celery, salt, and bouillon cubes. Let come back to a boil, cover and let cook for 45 minutes on medium heat.
After the 45 minutes remover the chicken from pan. When cool, remove the meat from the bone and chop into small pieces.
Add the chicken back into the soup along with the orzo pasta, and black pepper. Cook on medium uncovered for about 10 minutes or until paste is aldente.
If you want a thinner soup, add more water and let it come to a boil. Taste and add seasonings to your taste.
Serve with parsley flakes and red pepper for spicy kick if desired.
SOUP TO GO – TO GIVE TO YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS IS EASY USING ALUMINUM TRAYS.
I never expected to hear the words that came out of the Doctor’s mouth at my local Urgent Care office. “Sorry to to tell you but you have Covid; the test came back positive. You’ll have to quarantine for 10 days.”
There’s no way that I have Covid! I didn’t socialize with anyone except my immediate family. I always used hand sanitizer. I wore a mask in crowded places. I always wiped down grocery carriages and even gas pumps before using them. I practiced social distancing. I had taken the J&J Covid vaccine in April 2021 at the urging of my family to get protection from the virus.
I should have known the unusual body aches that I started having on a Friday night which left me almost unable to walk weren’t normal. It wasn’t like anything I had experienced before. What’s wrong with you mom? my daughter Lisa asked. “Nothing, I’m just very tired” I responded. That night I took 2 Tylenol and went to bed. “I’ll feel better in the morning”, I said to myself. I woke up with body aches the next day, but I had a busy day of cooking for my family all weekend so I took 2 more Tylenol to get through the day. I made it through my busy weekend taking more pain killers and although I felt extremely tired I felt it was because I overdid it with all the cooking and babysitting of my granddaughters.
Monday night sudden chills hit me along with a scratchy throat. It didn’t feel like a “regular” cold with a runny nose or sneezing. It felt more like a sinus cold. “It’s allergies or a summer cold” I thought. 3 days later, on Thursday morning I woke up with an excruciating sinus headache behind my eyeballs along with nausea. I thought it was definitely a sinus infection.
Friday morning the headache and the nausea continued, so I decided to get tested since my family suspected this was more than just a cold. I also had to babysit my granddaughter who had just started preschool that afternoon and I didn’t want to give her a cold during her first week of school.
It took my husband and I almost 2 hours and 5 phone calls to Covid testing sites to find an opening that morning. It wasn’t easy and quite frustrating. At one point we drove to the mall that offered drive up testing. We were shocked to find a huge line of about 100 cars to depths that I hadn’t seen since last year of 2020. Finally I had an evaluation at my Urgent care.
ANGER
Who the hell gave me Covid? The anger set in as I tried to blame someone. I traced my steps the previous week to narrow down where I could have gotten it? The only places I went to was, grocery shopping and my local bakery. How was this even possible? Was it through using my debit card or the touch pad? Did I forget to wipe down the carriage at the grocery store like I had done every time the last year and a half? Did I shake hands with someone or hug them? Could it be in the take out pizza I ate that Friday? Was it the young teenager who packed my groceries? Who the hell gave me Covid?
GUILT
The guilt set in and I felt like a total failure! “What a terrible grandmother I am.” I was angry with myself for getting the virus and possibly spreading it to my family who I had spent the entire weekend with. Everyone of them, including my husband, daughter, sons, daughter in law and even my granddaughters all had to get tested. Many missed days of school, work, and their quarantine was all because of me! My brothers and sisters were all upset and worried about me too.
Thankfully my daughter Lisa and my husband Augie took care of me. They cooked for me, fed me, nursed me back to health and quarantined along with me for 10 days! The whole week I could see the worry in their eyes through the masks they wore. What a terrible mother and wife to do this to them.
BARGAINING
If I recover from this, I’ll never go out in public again. I’ll never go out without a mask again. I’ll never eat take out food again! I’ll never hug or go near a person again! I’ll get my flu shot every year. I never want to put my family through this again.
DEPRESSION
The depression, crying, praying, feeling of doom, and possibly ending up on a respirator was terrible. The 10 days of quarantine brought fear and anxiety expecting it to get worse. I took my temperature every 30 minutes and tested my breathing constantly. Was I having chest congestion or was it just anxiety? Crying and praying wasn’t an option for long, because it made the anxiety even worse, so I stopped. I also stopped taking my temperature and my oxygen levels so often and I limited it to a only a few times a day, once in the morning and once at night.
ACCEPTANCE
Dealing with the virus was physically and mentally draining and was very difficult because of not knowing how sick I was going to get. I told myself just take this “one day at a time” and count down the days to end of quarantine. 10, 9. 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. “Calm down you’ll get through this,” I told myself.
Back pain, body aches, loss of taste and smell, headache, loss of appetite, nausea, dehydration, cough, upset stomach stomach, and sleeplessness. I had all of the classic side-effects except the fever. I did have minimal chest congestion.
I used saline spray to clear my sinus, Tylenol for body and backaches. I drank a lot of hot chamomile and lemon balm tea to calm me down. I tried to stay hydrated by drinking Gatorade, lots of ice water with lemon, and seltzer with lemon. Ginger ale and ginger candies helped the nausea slightly.
At 6 days into my quarantine, I felt week and lightheaded. I could tell by my wrinkled skin on my hands that I was dehydrated. My nausea had left me weak because I literally ate nothing for days except wheat toast, tea and Chicken Noodle Soup that Lisa made me. I started drinking Adult Pedialyte every day to replenish my electrolytes, nutrients and zinc. Within a few hours of my first glass, I began to feel better and after the 10 days I did get better, thankfully.
Now it’s been 2 weeks later. I’m slowly getting my strength back. The cough is gone, and my sense of smell and taste is slowly getting better. People ask me how did it feel? I can describe it as a very bad flu. Although It may be considered a “mild case” of Covid because I didn’t end up in the hospital, it was horrible. I often wondered if the vaccine had prevented me from going to hospital? What would have happened to me if I didn’t get it back in April?
I thank God that my family didn’t see me in a hospital on a respirator. It would have killed them. My advice to everyone is to go get the Covid vaccine. Do it for your family. Stay safe and I wish you all health. 🙂
NOTE: I’m not endorsing any products below but I’m just giving some information that might help for those going through the virus themselves. These are all over the counter remedies that I took. I’m not a medical professional. Follow your own doctors advise before taking any of these.
This will be your go to easy recipe any day of the week! I’ve made many variations on this soup in the photos below. You can add your own favorites such as; pea pods, mushrooms, fine noodles, or even some shrimp or cooked chicken for a variation. Just add the proteins to the broth and cook for an additional 10 minutes. I also made egg rolls to go along with the soup which were a big hit. My recipe for egg rolls can be baked, fried or air fried.
Place all ingredients in a soup pan except the pot stickers/shrimp/egg noodles and scallions. Let come to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Taste and add more salt or soy sauce if needed. Add desired amount of pot stickers per person and cook for 5 minutes. Save the broth for later and store in refrigerator up to 2 days. Heat broth and add more pot stickers as desired for each serving.
I only cook the pot stickers per portions needed since overcooking makes the dumplings mushy.
A perfect soup on a cold day. I make a regular chicken noodle soup and then add the matzo balls to it. The secret to make light and fluffy matzo balls are to add a little seltzer to the batter. Here’s the photo of best matzo mix that I’ve tried but you can also use your favorite brand.
Matzo Ball Ingredients:
3 eggs (separated)
1 and 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons club soda (seltzer)
1 package Matzo Ball soup mix (I use Streitz)
Soup ingredients:
1 bone in chicken breast
2 stalks celery (chopped)
1 small onion (chopped
2 large carrots (sliced)
8 cups chicken broth or more
4 oz egg noddles (optional)
salt to taste
crushed black pepper
parsley for garnish
Preparation:
Prepare the matzo balls by beating egg whites in a small bowl. In a separate bowl beat yolks, add olive oil, matzo, and seltzer and mix slightly. Fold in egg whites gently until incorporated. Don’t over mix. Place mix in refrigerator to set for at least 20 minutes while you cook the soup.
Soup:
Place broth, onion, celery, 1/2 of carrots and soup mix seasoning in a medium soup pan and bring to a boil. Add chicken breast, cover and cook for about 20 minutes on medium heat. Remove chicken and remove any bone, skin and cartilage. Shred chicken and add back into soup.
Make matzo balls:
Spoon 1 teaspoon of mix onto your slightly greased palm and shape gently into balls. *Do not compress. Add to simmering soup.
Add remaining carrots and noodles to soup and let cook along with the matzo balls for about 20 minutes. Stir gently once in a while. Taste for saltiness and add more salt if desired. Garnish with crushed black pepper and parsley.
If you love Caldo Verde or Kale Soup like my son, you’ll love my new Keto Diet, low carb recipe for Caldo Verde. He’s on a low carb diet, so that means potatoes are out of his diet.
This recipe tastes pretty close to the original recipe for Caldo Verde here on my blog. I substituted mashed cauliflower for the potatoes and it works! Give it a try and be sure to improvise with your own seasonings.
3 (14 oz) packages of frozen cauliflower or (3 pounds fresh cauliflower)
1 large onion (chopped)
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
4 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil or more
2 to 3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 bay leaf
2 to 3 cups finely chifounade collard greens or kale
6 to 8 oz. Chourico Portuguese sausage
Preparation:
In a medium saucepan bring the water and chicken broth to a boil. Add the cauliflower, onion, salt, pepper and olive oil. Cook for 8 – 10 minutes on medium heat until cauliflower is cooked.
Remove bay leaf. Puree the cauliflower and onion to a creamy consistency.
Add the chourico and collards. Cook for 10 minutes on medium heat until the collards are cooked to your desired taste.
Note: You may need to add more or less broth for a thinner/thicker broth.
Remove the chourico and cut into thin slices. Set aside to serve as garnish with 3 slices for each bowl of soup.
Optional: Add a drizzle of olive oil and fresh ground pepper to each serving.
Are you drooling yet? This is my favorite soup which I make every summer after our families Father’s Day clam bake! This is a great way to use up the leftover seafood and corn. Here’s the recipe for the Clam Bake.
I add a little 1920 Portuguese brandy to the broth for an added kick. Serve with an extra shot of brandy to drizzle into the chowder. The flavor is intense, rich and creamy. You’ll never through out that day old lobster again!
Ingredients:
Lobster shells from 3 lobsters
Meat from 1 lobster (or 1-2 cups) chopped into small pieces
1 pound shelled shrimp (raw or cooked)
1 pound little neck clams (with or without shell)
1 pound mussels (with or without shell)
2 cups of corn kernels
2 tbsp of Brandy (I used 1920 Portuguese Brandy)
2 cups fish or chicken stock
1 small onion (finely minced)
1 celery stalk (finely minced)
4 tbsp butter
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of flour
2 cups of light cream
1/2 gallon of whole or light milk
Lemon wedges for garnish
Parsley for garnish
Preparation:
In a medium pan, place the lobster shells in the stock and milk and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes. This will infuse the stock with the lobster. Strain the broth, remove shells and discard shells.
In a large stock pot, saute the onion, and celery in the butter until translucent. Add the flour, and stir until the flour has melted into the butter. Add the seafood, corn, milk broth and remaining ingredients except the cream, brandy, and lobster pieces and stir on low heat. Cook on low for a few minutes.
Cover and continue cooking for 15 minutes on low heat or until thickened. Add the cream, lobster pieces and brandy. Simmer on low heat for another 10 minutes stirring gently. Taste and add more salt and pepper if desired. Note: If you want a thicker chowder milk a little flour with milk in a small bowl and add to the chowder. Cook for a few minutes until thicker.
Serve garnished with lemon wedges and parsley.
Serve with an additional shot of 1920 brandy. Drizzle it into the chowder for a kick!
The cool weather is here. Let the soup cooking start. This soup is a bowl of healthy eating. Just serve with some crusty bread and dinner is served!
Ingredients:
2 pounds garden green beans (cut into 1 inch pieces)
2 large carrots (chopped)
1 large carrot (sliced)
1 large onion (minced)
1 clove garlic (minced)
1 large chopped tomato (seeded and skinned)
2 cups elbow macaroni (uncooked)
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
4 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 bay leaf
2 large sprigs parsley (chopped)
1/4 cup olive oil
Preparation:
Saute onions, garlic and bay leaf in olive oil for few minutes. Add the tomato and chopped carrots and cook for about 3 minutes stirring often.
Add the all of the remaining ingredients except pasta sliced carrots and parsley. Bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the macaroni and sliced carrots and cook on medium for about 15 – 20 minutes until pasta is cooked.
Taste the soup for saltiness and add more if desired. Take soup off heat and let it sit to thicken. Add more broth if you like your soup thinner. Garnish with parsley and a little drizzle of olive oil.
Nothing is more comforting than a hearty bowl of soup in a snow storm! This soup cooked in 30 minutes so it’s an easy lunch or dinner. It’s packed with vitamins and protein from the kale and chick peas, and if you’re a vegetarian, simply substitute the broth using vegetable broth and use cheese tortellini instead of meat. You can also cheat a little by using a tortellini soup mix which I often do! Enjoy and stay warm this month. Spring in just around the corner!
Tortellini Kale Vegetable Soup
Ingredients:
1 (12 oz.) package of uncooked tortellini with meat or cheese
4 cups of kale (roughly chopped)
2 large carrots (sliced into 1/4 inch)
1 28 – 32 oz can cooked chick peas
1 large onion (finely chopped)
1 32 oz can of chopped tomatoes with Italian seasonings
4 cups chicken broth
4 – 6 cups water
2 cloves garlic (finely minced)
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Preparation:
Saute the onion, carrots and bay leaf in the olive oil for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and let simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the broth, water, salt and pepper and let come to a boil. Add the chick peas, kale, and tortellini. Let come to a roiling boil. Reduce heat to medium and let cook for about 20 minutes or longer depending how you like your vegetables. Taste soup and add more seasonings if desired.
Add a drizzle of olive oil and more pepper to bowl before serving. Serve with crusty bread and butter and your dinner is served!
Kale photo credit (http://www.onceuponachef.com/2014/06/asian-kale-slaw-ginger-peanut-dressing.html)
Nothing says fall like hearty soups made with a thick rich broth made with fall harvest vegetables. I used 3 different kinds of squash from my garden, but you can use whatever you prefer. My husband loves Pasta Fagioli soup, but I added extra flavor and richness with the squash. The soup is even better the next day so don’t be afraid to make this big pot of soup! The next day, just pick some crusty Portuguese bread or make your own Pao Milho – Corn Bread to go along with the soup and dinner is done! P.S. My husband loved it and so will your family! Enjoy the fall harvest!
Look at the beautiful fall colors in these squash
Ingredients:
Note: You may use the following squash or substitute with your favorite.
1 cup Butternut squash (peeled and chopped into 2 chunks)
1 cup Acorn squash (peeled and chopped into 2 chunks)
1 cup Delicata squash (peeled and chopped into 2 chunks)
1 32 oz can of small white cannelloni beans
8 oz (1/2 package) of elbow pasta
1 small onion (finely chopped)
1 stalk of celery (finely chopped)
3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
3 carrots (cut into 1/4 inch slices)
1 small ripe tomato (seeded and chopped into small pieces)
5 cups or more of water (depending on how thick you want the broth)
3 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh parsley (finely chopped)
1 tablespoon fresh basil (finely chopped)
1 teaspoon piri piri or hot sauce
1 tablespoon shredded Parmesan or pecorino cheese
Olive oil for garnish
Preparation:
Place the onion, garlic, celery and olive oil in a large soup pan or dutch oven. Cook for a few minutes until the onion is translucent. Add the squash and tomato, salt and pepper and saute for about 5 minutes. Add the water and broth and let come to a boil. Cover the soup and let cook for about 10 minutes until the squash is tender. Remove from heat and puree vegetable with an immersion blender to your desired consistency. Return to stove and let come to boil. Add the pasta, beans and the carrots and let cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes until the pasta is almost fully cooked. Add the parsley, and basil, stir and taste. Add the piri piri sauce if desired and more salt and pepper if needed. Remove from heat until ready to serve. The soup will thicken the longer it sits. Add a drizzle of olive oil and a the shredded cheese into each bowl if desired when serving.
My mother always had a pot of soup on the stove during the cold months to serve her family or friends if they stopped by. It was her mission to feed her guests and she would be insulted if they said no. In fact she would feed the soup to her tenant Brian that lived in the upstairs apartment, and her neighbors as well.
I’ve often reflected on my mother’s desire to feed everyone and I find that I have her same habit of forcing all my guests to eat when they come to visit. I’ve decided that if I ever become a millionaire in this life, which I highly doubt, or the next, I will make it a mission, to open a “Soup Kitchen” and call it “Carmelina’s Kitchen”.
Serves 8-10
Ingredients:
1 medium bunch of fresh kale (washed, stems removed and finely chopped)
2 medium pork chops or bone in spare ribs
4 cups of water
4 cups of low sodium chicken broth
2 large red potatoes (unpeeled and chopped into cubes)
2 large carrots (peeled and quartered)
2 cups of butternut squash (chopped into cubes)
1 large onion (chopped)
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Preparation:
Salt the pork chops the night before or a few hours before cooking. When ready, in large soup pan, add the olive oil, onion, pork and garlic and saute until the pork is browned on all sides.
Add the water and broth and let come to a boil. Add all of the remaining ingredients except the kale and one carrot and bring back to a boil.
Stir, reduce heat to medium, cover, and let cook for 45 minutes. Remove the pork, shred the meat for later and discard any bones. Cut the vegetables in the soup into smaller pieces or leave whole if desired.
Add the kale, shredded pork, and the remaining carrot and cook for about 10-15 minutes longer. Taste and add more salt if needed. Turn off heat and serve with a drizzle of extra virgin oil over the soup.
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