Soup's On!

Fidelity manages our retirement savings, and this has required plenty of meetings since John retired. We meet with Joe and Chad once each quarter, sometimes at their office in Princeton and sometimes over Zoom. I kind of like the office meetings because afterward we go across the street to Olive Garden and have soup, salad, and breadsticks for lunch. 

John made an appointment for the end of November but he chose a Zoom call. I was a bit disappointed because that meant I wouldn't be enjoying chicken gnocchi soup and breadsticks, so I decided to make some myself using this recipe. First, I chopped the onion and carrots.

I didn't use celery because I didn't have any, and I also used shallots instead of garlic. John grew shallots in the garden this year and I have lots of them to use up. Next, I sautéed the vegetables. 

Then I added the chicken broth and chicken, brought the mixture to a boil, and added the gnocchi. I didn't make my gnocchi from scratch because I don't have a potato ricer and it sounded like more work than I wanted. The gnocchi from the grocery store worked just fine, and I doubt that there is a chef in Olive Garden's kitchen making their gnocchi by hand. 

I decreased the heat, added half and half (I didn't have heavy cream but the half and half worked), spinach (I used frozen chopped spinach because that's what I had on hand), thyme, salt, and pepper, and voilà, soup!

It was pretty good and made enough that we are having leftovers tonight. Next time I think I'll use garlic instead of shallots and rough chop fresh spinach instead of using frozen. It would also be better if a waiter brought me unlimited breadsticks, but I'll make these the next time I make soup. 

I enjoy making soup in the fall and winter and I'm already perusing recipes for what I'm going to try next. What's your favorite soup recipe?