Springtime Chicken Soup

Ah springtime! That wonderful season in which we're all rewarded for making it through the winter with wonderful things like asparagus and beers on a patio and daylight past 5 pm and pollen. Okay so pollen totally sucks, but most other aspects of spring are fantastic. I tried to harness some of my favorite springtime veggies into this fresh, springtime chicken soup. The artsy pictures are compliments of the Mister. He's really getting good with our new camera.

For this baby you'll need: a pound or so of chicken, a bunch of asparagus, a package of sliced mushrooms, two stalks of celery, two shallots, a few cloves of garlic, some frozen peas, some frozen lima beans, chicken broth and whatever seasoning you desire.

First, trim the fat off the chicken and liberally salt and pepper it.

Then, contemplate the best way to cook this chicken, ultimately deciding that your husband should grill it for you.

Have a good chuckle at the puppy hunting a burnt piece of asparagus that your husband threw off the grill from last week's grilled asparagus. The puppy later found this asparagus and did his best to eat it.

While the chicken grills, chop up the veggies. I started with the asparagus. First trimming the woody ends, then chopping into small pieces.

Then, the mushrooms. Even though they came pre-sliced, I chopped them a little smaller.

Next the celery. Just chop as per usual for soup.

Onto the garlic. I used three cloves and minced them.

Next, the shallots. I used two shallots and minced them as well.

Hopefully by now your chicken is done and looks something like this

Let it cool a bit and chop into chunks.

Now to cooking. Heat a bit of olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook until you start to smell the garlic.

Add the asparagus, mushroom and celery and a bit of salt.  Cook for about ten minutes until the mushrooms start to shrink a bit.

Add the broth and chopped chicken. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer.

Add the peas and lima beans.  I didn't put many into my soup because I grossly overestimated the amount of asparagus I was using. Yes, that is one of the Ed Hardy glasses from last week. They're still in my house.

The soup is edible once everything is heated through.  I let mine simmer for 30 minutes because I was busy getting ready to head to Park Tavern with my visiting parents and the puppy.  After the simmer, I tasted the soup and it needed something extra. I started with some dark soy sauce and added about 1/2 a cup.

The soy sauce wasn't enough, so I threw in some sriracha as well. Probably about a tablespoon.  For those of you who do not frequent ethnic establishments, sriracha is a delicious Thai hot sauce made from chili peppers, vinegar, salt, garlic and sugar. Its pretty hot so use it sparingly unless you like hot food.

I let this simmer a bit longer and portioned it into my lunch soup servings and a big bowl of non-lunch soup. I think this made something around 8 servings.

CJ asked me what kind of soup this was when I was heating it up at work today. I couldn't come up with anything better than springtime chicken soup. Seems like a sad name for something that is actually quite good.