Seasonal changes beckon new recipe endeavors including hearty, nourishing comfort soups. Here’s an easy favorite.

Don’t get scared off by the cook time — it’s only long because you’re essentially creating the soup’s broth and giving it flavor.

Hearty Garden Soup

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American, Pioneer

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 45 minutes minutes

Total Time: 2 hours hours

Servings: 8 people

Calories: 351kcal

Author: Dana Ketter

Cost: $1.64

A nourishing meal to ease the changing of seasons.

Print Recipe

Equipment

• stock pot, knife, peeler, cutting board, ladle, measuring cup

Ingredients

• 12 oz Organic Chopped Kale 4-5 packed cups
• 3 lbs Sweet Potatoes cubed
• ¾ lbs Organic Carrots sliced
• 1 lbs Free Range Chicken Breast cubed
• 4 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 64 oz Free Range Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• 32 oz Drinking Water 4 cups
• 2 each Bay Leaf
• 1 tbsp Garlic minced
• 1 tsp Ground Thyme dried
• ½ tsp Cayenne Pepper
• ¼ tsp Salt
• ½ tsp Onion Powder
• ½ tsp Oregano dried

Instructions

• In large stock pot add chicken broth, 2 cups of water, and 2 bay leaves – bring to a slow simmer.
• Add cubed sweet potatoes and sliced carrots. Cook on low with the lid on for about one hour. This helps prevent the broth from evaporating and allows the root veggies to flavor the broth.
• In a skillet, cook the cubed chicken breast in olive oil with desired spices. Feel free to add additional spice – just avoid adding more salt.
• Add chopped kale – cut to desired size. (I typically wash the pre-cut kale and don’t chop it because I enjoy chunky soups and the kale gets cooked well in this recipe, so I’m not eating crunchies.) Alternatively, purchasing whole-leaf kale and removing the stems my be your jam.
• Add cooked chicken breast. Cook with the lid off on medium-low for another 20-30 minutes, or until kale is ready.

Notes

WHOLE RECIPE:

Total Calories – 2,672  .  Total Cost – $13.1  .  Grade – B  .  *Monthly Cost – $589

Programming Notes: Check out our Savvy Alternates table below.

Time-crunch tip: strip the meat off of a pre-cooked chicken and add this directly to the soup, along with the spices. While it’s not free range, a Costco or Sam’s Club chicken for $5 just might save your meal prep.

Longer Route – cook a whole organic chicken or turkey: use some of the meat for the soup and boil the bones for a big bonus: bone broth — a micro-nutrient rich alternative to store-bought broth! Not to mention all the meat leftover.

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*This refers to the monthly grocery bill if TWO PEOPLE ate cumulatively 4,000 Calories per day, and only ate this meal all month long. If you’re running calculations for ONE person – divide the monthly cost in half.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Hearty Garden Soup

Amount Per Serving

Calories 351 Calories from Fat 90

% Daily Value*

Fat 10g15%

Saturated Fat 2g13%

Cholesterol 36mg12%

Sodium 352mg15%

Potassium 1323mg38%

Carbohydrates 46g15%

Fiber 6g25%

Sugar 9g10%

Protein 22g44%

Vitamin A 35563IU711%

Vitamin C 59mg72%

Calcium 150mg15%

Iron 3mg17%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Favorite Parings: Rudi’s Gluten Free bread with goat cheese or herbs and olive oil. Not Vegan? Try our Keto Breadsticks!

No extra groceries needed. Just utilize what you can from your fridge and pantry. That’s the beauty of a good hearty soup!

Example: We were away visiting family and I was without a car, but given the opportunity to make an early autumn dinner. What do you do when there’s a hodgepodge of ingredients and it’s getting cold outside?

Cue the first soup of the season. What I had available is what ended up in a scrumptious trio of flavor, texture, and nutrients!

That First Autumn Soup (hodgepodge version 101):

1/3 head of green cabbage, a TON of organic carrots, a bag of wilting “power greens” (that were beyond salad prime but not worthy of the compost bin), the dark meat left on a Costco chicken, a can of organic black beans, one HUGE sweet potato and a white potato, and two 32oz containers of broth.

Add the best soup spices from the pantry and about 6 cups of drinking water and we were in business!

If you don’t have broth – never fear!! Simply cook a quarter or half of your veggies for an hour with 4 extra cups of water, spices, and a couple bay leaves to create a solid broth. Fresh herbs are fabulous here.

If you have fresh cooked bones from a grass-fed, organic, free-range animal, feel free to add these as well, but cook these alone with spices for 4-6 hours first, then finely strain the broth (using a dense sieve or cheese cloth to remove the bones) and then add 1/4 or 1/2 of your total soup veggies. Cook for another hour to finish making your broth.

After the broth is ready, add the rest of your soup fixings including the remaining veggies. This helps with increasing diversity of textures in the soup as well as preserving nutrients. If there was an onion available, I would have certainly added it as well!

Pictured Left: Beginnings of Veggie-based broth.

Cooking for carnivores, herbivores, vegetarians AND vegans: Use a veggie based broth, and then simply set aside a sufficient portion of the soup before adding chicken/meat to the rest of the pot. For a side, consider a few different options, from cheese bread to keto breadsticks to gluten free bread + oil.

Consider offering some nutritional yeast for vegetarian and vegan guests to add to their soup or bread – it’s a yummy way to boost flavor, plus it’s nutrient-packed.

For extra nourishment, I served this hodgepodge soup with a side of my keto breadsticks; a hearty dinner for many that even earned an A grade in price!

Feedback: “delicious!” “hits the spot!” “I’m stuffed” “that bread was perfect with it!” and on and on…

Here’s a table with external links for each recipe ingredient (plus a few alternate ingredient ideas). As previously mentioned, prices vary per region, season, city, store and personal preference for brand or specific type of food item.

TJ’s = Trader Joe’s