Leftover Chicken and Rice Soup

Here on the West Coast, winter is a mere wisp of fog in the early morning with the occasional (VERY occasional) splattering of rain shower.  The high today is 61 degrees.  As an East Coaster from THE snowiest, iciest, and sludgiest godforsaken region literally dubbed, "The Snow Belt," I know a thing or two about rough winters.  I also know a thing or two about not enduring said rough winters and immediately becoming the sun-loving wimp that I currently am.  I recently bought a wool poncho as my winter gear.

But as a cook, when the evening temps dip down into the 40s (yup), I'm all about traditional winter fare - bring on the soups, stews, and roasts.  And as always in the months following the indulgences of the holiday season, frugality and health are top priorities.  Creative uses for leftovers are key, and chicken soup is an excellent go-to. 

Nearly once a week Daniel expertly roasts a whole chicken.  He has got that sucker down to a science.  It is one of the easiest, cheapest and most satisfying meals and I love it because I don't have to do anything.  Plus we're left with a lot of roasted chicken to scatter throughout meals in the following days.  Apart from adding to salads or tacos, one of my favorite uses for leftover chicken is in some kind of soup.  It is the be-all end-all answer to what are we going to have for dinner tonight and what the hell am I supposed to do with this half of a portobello in the fridge?  

The formula is simple.  Start with a few cups of chicken stock, preferably homemade.  Bring to a low simmer.  Add vegetables of your choice - carrots, turnips, potatoes, greens, onion, celery, etc. etc.  Hard to go wrong here.  Add cooked chicken.  Cook until vegetables are tender.  Throw in herbs - dill!, parsley, cilantro, basil, etc.  Taste for seasoning, garnish with more herbs, and serve over a heaping spoonful of wild rice.  Not only have you put your roast chicken to good use, you've also cleared out the vegetable drawer in your fridge without having to brave the store!  Bring on the frost!

Though the variations are infinite, this is my favorite.  Light and lemony, it soothes out the winter aches, no matter where you're enduring them.

LEFTOVER CHICKEN AND RICE SOUP
serves 2 (with more leftovers)

4 - 5 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
2 carrots, diced
2 turnips, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1/2 portobello mushroom, diced
2 - 3 handfuls chopped kale
the meat from 1 large, cooked chicken breast, diced
1 bunch fresh dill, chopped
1 lemon

2 cups cooked wild rice

In a large stew pot bring the chicken stock to a low simmer.  Add all vegetables and chicken.  Cook on low until the vegetables are tender.  The longer you cook it for, the better as this will enhance the flavors.  Add 2/3 of the chopped dill and juice from half the lemon.  Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as needed.  

To serve, scoop rice into bowls and ladle soup over top.  Garnish with more fresh dill and another wedge of lemon.    

Waste not.

Last week at my little farmer's market, I spied Daniel's favorite - bunches of heirloom carrots in all their multi-colored, tangled glory.  If you look at them in just the right way, you'll find they have legs and arms and thank goodness they are rubberbanded together because they might just get up and walk right out of your tote.  I've been told that their gnarliness is an indication that growing conditions weren't quite right, but I think they're fabulous.  They are roots after all.  I snatch up a few bunches and hold tight, happily squirreling them home.  With a simple splash of olive oil, salt and pepper, they're into a hot oven to become the silkiest, sweetest, most gorgeous side dish ever.  Roasted carrots are outrageously easy and make Daniel extremely happy - we're all winners here.

But what to do with those intimidating, guilt inducing carrot tops?  I've heard of carrot top soup, but that sounds rather blegh.  And sure, you can add them to chicken stock and it's great!  I was roasting a chicken that day and should have used the carcass for stock, but I already have two very large jars of homemade stock in my freezer that haven't moved in months.  I take that back, they moved from my last freezer to my new one, despite Daniel's insistence that we need not move frozen jars of stuff we don't use.  But we might!  Just wait until soup season starts!

So what to do with those carrot tops that I just can't throw out because because because?  I decided to do with them what I do with any extra herb or green I have lying around, begging to be made into something more delicious.  Pesto!  Whirred up with some good olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and a healthy handful of walnuts, the carrot tops transformed into something earthy, grassy, and rich.  The walnuts added a gentle toasty depth and thickened the pesto nicely.  Originally I was planning on using it to dress my roast chicken, but upon tasting it I decided that it needed something fattier - bread and cheese.  Thus another dinner was born - carrot top pesto pizza with radicchio, roasted summer squash, garlic blossoms and feta.  Slow roasted tomatoes rounded out the meal, which was made complete with a few glasses of Copain's 2010 Tous Ensemble Pinot Noir, our house red.  We're extremely spoiled, that gem of a wine is just so so good and we have so so much of it!

CARROT TOP PESTO

carrot tops
a good glug of good olive oil
salt and pepper
garlic cloves, crushed
lemon juice
a handful of toasted walnuts

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until a smooth pesto forms, adding olive oil as needed and seasoning to taste.  The carrot tops are a little stemmy, so they take a while to puree.  

Use like any pesto - with pasta, pizza, cheeses, crudites.