Old-Fashioned Chicken Vegetable Soup

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This old-fashioned chicken vegetable soup is one of the newest additions to my winter meal plan. Based on a vintage recipe, it is as colorful as a spring garden, but filling enough to be a full cold weather meal. This creamy and nourishing soup can nonetheless be made anytime of the year. It is a great side dish or appetizer for supper, but I added protein to the original recipe to make a complete meal.

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Old-Fashioned Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Creamy, colorful, and so filled. This vintage soup recipe has some added protein to make acomplete meal.

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine American

Diet Diabetic, Gluten Free, Kosher, Low Calorie

Keyword Gluten Free, Nut Free, WW Friendly

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Servings 8

Calories 244kcal

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 1 bunch leeks thinly sliced
• 3-4 ribs celery thinly chopped
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1 green pepper cut into thin strips
• 28 oz chicken broth
• 2 medium potatoes sliced 1/4" thick
• 3 medium carrots thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cup milk
• 1 cup frozen peas thawed
• 1 lbs cooked chicken breast shredded or cubed

Instructions

• Chop and prepare your vegetables. Take care to separate and thoroughly rinse leeks.
• Heat a large stock pot or Dutch oven to medium-high heat. Melt butter.
• Saute onion, leeks, and celery. Cook until the onions are soft.
• Stir in green pepper. Cook for one minute.
• Add broth, potatoes, carrots, salt, oregano, and bay leaf. Bring soup to a boil. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
• Stir in milk, peas, and chicken. Heat uncovered until peas and chicken are warmed through.
• Serve hot.

Notes

This recipe is 7 Green, 5 Blue, and 4 Purple WW Points.

Calories and points are calculated using 1% milk and butter.  Using fat free milk and/or margarine will lower points.

See blog notes on how to make this recipe dairy or nightshade free.

Jump to nutritional information

Old-Fashioned Recipe from an Old-Fashioned Subscription

A few months ago, I was gifted a set of vintage recipe cards from a member of my local Buy Nothing Group.  My Great Recipes was a mail subscription series from the 80’s.  There were stacks of these cards and all except the first were still sealed.  So, in this time of Covid, when I’m bored, I open a pack and pick something out to try. 

While going through a pack I came across a recipe for old-fashioned vegetable soup.  Well, it’s November, so it’s soup season and my eyes were immediately drawn to the amazing picture of the soup in a tureen.  Stuffed full of a variety of vegetables and a little bit of seasoning, I thought this would make an excellent dish.

Even though it’s an “old-fashioned” recipe, it didn’t feel old fashioned to me.  So many recipes in these cards and the old cookbooks I recently got are full of high amounts of ingredients it seems like more and more people are avoiding, like high amounts of fats and processed foods.  But in this recipe, the fat is limited to butter for sauteing.  So good, I only made a few slight changes from the original.

Cooking the Vegetable Soup.

Let’s get started.  Since this recipe is based on a vegetable soup, you know vegetables are where you are going to start.  So, start with the chopping.  This recipe requires lots and lots of chopping – onion, celery, carrots, peppers!  When I have a recipe that requires a lot of chopping, I will often chop as I go.  If there are a few minutes between each step, that’s fine, and to me a way to save time.  However, that won’t really work with this recipe.  The first few steps of the recipe go quickly, so I recommend having most if not all of the vegetables chopped before starting.  Of course, you can usually buy chopped onions, celery, and carrots in the produce or frozen section of your grocery store to save time.

I don’t recall ever seeing leeks prechopped, so you will probably need to chop and rinse those yourself.  Leeks tend to get a lot of dirt in between layers, so I usually rinse them in my colander and let them drain.

Heat your Dutch oven or stock pot over medium-high heat.  Once the pot has started to warm, add in your butter to melt.  After the butter has melted, add in your onion, leeks, and celery.  Now that I have added these three ingredients, my Dutch oven was almost full.  Make sure to stir frequently so that the vegetables are cooking evenly.  Don’t worry, the vegetables should cook down and you will have more room for the rest of the ingredients.

Continue allowing the mix to cook until the onions have become soft, about five minutes.  At this point, add in the strips of green peppers.  Stir the peppers in and allow to cook for about a minute.  Add in the broth, potatoes, carrots, salt, oregano, and bay leaf.  Stir to combine all of the ingredients.  Raise the heat on the stove and bring the soup to a boil.  Once the soup is boiling, cover the pot and reduce heat to a simmer. 

Finishing the Soup

Allow the soup to simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 to 25 minutes.  Once the potatoes have softened to your liking, remove the cover of the pot and add in the milk, peas, and shredded chicken.  Stir the milk and broth until they are well combined.  The liquid will have a lovely golden yellow color.  I usually allow the soup to sit for a few more minutes just to make sure everything I just added is warm.  Here’s a tip – take your remaining ingredients out of the fridge and let them sit on the counter while the soup cooks, so it’s at room temp when it’s added.  Adding cold ingredients will cool the soup, and this is not a cold soup! 

Once the peas, milk, and chicken have been added and warm, your soup is ready.  Serve the Chicken Vegetable Soup hot.  Since this a full meal with protein, starch, and of course, vegetables, it doesn’t really need anything else, making it a perfect one pot meal.  And you wouldn’t believe how filling it is.  Mr. Hopper, who always takes 2nds, and often 3rds, was done after one bowl! 

Then again, bit of bread always goes nicely with a hot bowl of soup.

Variations on the Old-Fashioned Chicken Vegetable Soup

I love that it’s really easy to adapt and change this recipe up.  It does include a few ingredients that might be no-no’s on certain meal plans, so let’s talk about adapting!

If you want just a vegetable soup, omit the meat.  This was just a basic vegetable recipe to start with, I added the chicken so I wouldn’t have to cook a main protein, and because I had some leftover shredded chicken I wanted out of the freezer.  If you’re vegetarian, leave out the meat and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.

If you are following a Paleo or similar meal plan, don’t add anything after the potatoes are done, unless you are adding meat.  Leave out the dairy and peas (a legume) and enjoy as it is.  Whole30 recently made a change to allow peas on the program. Without the dairy, it will be a little less creamy, but this isn’t a heavy cream soup anyway. 

Same goes for anyone with issues with dairy – leave it out.  You will still have a wonderful broth vegetables and chicken soup. 

This soup looks like a nightmare for people with nightshade issues.  Onion, bell pepper, and potatoes, oh my!  I haven’t tried it myself, but I will be asking a friend with nightshade issues to give these changes a try for me.  Drop the onion and bell pepper.  There’s only one pepper, and to be honest, I don’t think I’d miss it too much.  I might add in an extra leek to make up for the missing onion.  While the recipe calls for white potatoes, you could use sweet potatoes, but personally I would swap them out for a few parsnips. 

Need More Soup?

Soup season is here, and I am revisiting some of my old favorites.  I’ve already posted about some like my Barley Chicken Soup and Garlic Shrimp Soup.  What kind of soups are you looking forward to?  Let me know in the comments below!

In the meantime, don’t forget to check out our latest meal plans and kitchen gadgets like our Straining Ladle in the Hoppin Meal Plans store.

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