Quick & Light Chicken Toscana Soup Insired by Macaroni Grill
"This is a delicious and light version of Macaroni Grill's Chicken Toscana Soup. This recipe could use some thickening up with half & half and butter to be more like Macaroni Grill's, but I like it lower calorie so this is the way I make it. On the days I am making this, I run by Macaroni Grill and get one of their loaves of bread to go with it (they charge $1 per loaf and include the oil/vineger/black pepper dipping sauce) or you can make your own - there is an easy, highly rated version on RecipeZaar (#64446). I have made this in a crockpot (I cooked the sauted onions and garlic, broth, and raw chicken for 7 hours on low,,,shredded the chicken....then I transferred it to a pot on the stove and finished it according to recipe)."
- Ready In:
- 35mins
- Ingredients:
- 11
- Serves:
-
4
ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 45 ounces low-sodium low-fat chicken broth (3 small cans or 1 large can )
- 1 large tomatoes, drained and chopped
- 1 -2 cup cooked chicken (roasted chicken from grocery store works great)
- 8 ounces 1% low-fat milk (you can use half & half if you want to be decadent)
- 8 ounces mini gnocchi (Recipe online or Trader Joes carries it, get parmesan gnocchi if they have it. If you can't find min)
- 5 ounces Baby Spinach (fresh, half bag)
- parmesan cheese
- fresh basil (if you only have dried, rub approx. 3/4 tsp. between palms and add when you add the milk)
directions
- Cook the onion and garlic in olive oil until transparent (5-10 minutes). Add the chicken broth and bring to boil. Add chicken and tomatoes; bring back to a good simmer for 5 minutes. Add gnocchi; cook for 1 or 2 minutes if mini size, a little longer if larger.
- Add milk and heat until steaming. Stir in spinach just long enough to wilt. Ladel into bowls and top with parmesan cheese and fresh basil if you have it.
Questions & Replies
Got a question?
Share it with the community!
Reviews
-
This is an excellent soup with just a few changes. I reduced the amount of onion to half of a medium white onion (there was simply too much onion!) and increased the garlic to four cloves. Instead of using 1% milk I used half and half, which made the soup super creamy. If the health conscious want the creamy without a lot of the fat, look into fat free half and half which is also very rich. I was unable to find mini gnocchi, so I used regular. The only thing I would change with that is to reduce the amount of gnocchi (by a 1/3) and chop the regular sized gnocchi in half. Otherwise, yum! Make this recipe.
Tweaks
-
This is an excellent soup with just a few changes. I reduced the amount of onion to half of a medium white onion (there was simply too much onion!) and increased the garlic to four cloves. Instead of using 1% milk I used half and half, which made the soup super creamy. If the health conscious want the creamy without a lot of the fat, look into fat free half and half which is also very rich. I was unable to find mini gnocchi, so I used regular. The only thing I would change with that is to reduce the amount of gnocchi (by a 1/3) and chop the regular sized gnocchi in half. Otherwise, yum! Make this recipe.
