Tortellini Soup

Last night, I put together a big pot of tortellini soup because I knew I wouldn't have much time to make dinner tonight. I was inspired by this recipe. Here's what I did:

I started by making some chicken broth using some of the bones from the rotisserie chicken we bought yesterday. I combined some bones, onion, carrots and celery in my dutch oven and covered with water.

After it simmered away for a while, it looked more like this:

Then I strained it out and set it aside.

Meanwhile, this is what my counter looked like...kinda like vegetable throw-up!

I diced up all my veggies at tossed them in the pot with some olive oil. I used half a white potato and half a sweet potato that I already had in the fridge, even though they weren't in the recipe, plus a zucchini, onion, green beans, red peppers and fire roasted tomatoes:

I added a little leftover chicken, the chicken broth I made, and some of the store-bought broth I bought for the pot pies and lots of oregano:

When all the veggies were crisp tender, I also added some baby spinach:

Finally, I added the tortellini. Please read the package directions and don't do like I did and add the tortellini without cooking it! Or you will find yourself spending five minutes fishing out all the tortellini so you can cook them properly! I probably could have just left them in the soup but I had already taken it off the heat and was ready to put it away so I wanted to cook the tortellini separately. Also, check the sodium content of your tortellini, some can be pretty high...

 After they've been cooked properly, add them to the soup!

 

 

Voila! Then all I had to do tonight was reheat a small pot of it, dish it out and enjoy!

You might need to add a little more broth as lots seemed to get absorbed overnight.

Finally, here's another tortellini soup recipe from one of my readers. Can't wait to try this version- thanks Michelle!

1 lb italian sausage (I use bob evans bulk)
1 lg. onion
2 cans white beans (cannelli beans)
2 14 oz beef broth
28 oz diced tomatoes
1 bag frozen cheese tortellini
2 small zucchini (optional)
1 red pepper

Clean & slice red pepper & broil until skins are blackened.  Rinse under cool water to remove the skin & then chop the peppers. Brown sausage & onion.  Add all other ingredients but the tortellini.
Simmer about 20 mintues or until zucchini is done.  Add tortellini & continue simmering for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!
--Lindsay--