Creamy Chicken Tortellini Soup with Spinach
This easy recipe is cozy, soul-satisfying comfort food that's also packed with veggies and protein.
Servings: 4
Calories: 485kcal
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons (28 grams) butter
- 1 medium onion diced small
- 1 medium carrot diced small
- 1 rib celery diced small
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 8 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons (15 grams) flour
- 2 tablespoons (30 grams) tomato paste
- 3 cups (710 ml) chicken broth
- 26 ounces (750 grams) crushed tomatoes (see note 2)
- Large piece parmesan rind
- 9 ounces (255 grams) cheese tortellini (see note 3)
- 5 ounces (142 grams) baby spinach
- 12 ounces (340 grams) cooked chicken (two cups diced)
Instructions
- In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat.
- Add the onion, carrot, celery, and salt. Cook, stirring from time to time, until softened, about five minutes.
- Stir in garlic, herbes de Provence, black pepper, and red pepper flakes, and cook for one minute.
- Add flour and stir to coat well. Cook one minute more.
- Stir in tomato paste.
- Pour in broth and crushed tomatoes and stir well, scraping up any bits from the bottom of the pot and allowing the flour-coated vegetables to mingle with the liquid.
- Nestle the parmesan rind into the broth.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.
- Stir in tortellini and simmer according to the length of time on the package. (The brand I typically use cooks for seven minutes.)
- Stir in spinach and cooked chicken and simmer until spinach is wilted and chicken is warmed through.
- Serve with grated parmesan to pass at the table if you like.
Notes
- If you don't have cooked chicken on hand, you've got plenty of options. You can dice 12 ounces of raw boneless, skinless chicken breast or thighs and cook it right in the broth, adding at the same time as the tortellini (or shortly before, if your tortellini only cooks for a couple of minutes). You can buy a rotisserie chicken if you're short on time. Or you can use one of my favorite easy methods to cook chicken: roast it, cook it in the Instant Pot, or go sous vide.
- You can use a 26.5-ounce box or a 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, which is about 3 cups.
- Use cheese tortellini from the refrigerator section of the grocery store, which is made with fresh pasta.
- Leftovers are great for lunch the next day. The soup will keep in a tightly sealed container in the fridge for a week, but the tortellini will absorb the liquid. You can thin it with chicken broth when reheating if you like.
Nutrition
Calories: 485kcal | Carbohydrates: 57g | Protein: 35.3g | Fat: 14.2g | Fiber: 7.5g | Sugar: 13g