Chicken and Avocado Soup


Recipe Inspiration from: Skinny Taste
Original Recipe: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/02/chicken-and-avocado-soup.html

Cochran Review: I say inspired and original above because I had to alter the original recipe cooking instructions in several ways to appeal to my boys. I'm sure I'd love the original recipe as is. We're having this for dinner tonight. Stay tuned for what we thought and pictures.

Rather than state my changes in a paragraph format, I thought it may be easier to just rewrite the recipe as I made it. So, here is how I prepared our dinner..

Chicken
- 5 cups of chicken broth
- 10 whole peppercorns
- 1 lime (sliced thinly)
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 raw boneless skinless chicken breasts
- pinch of cumin powder
- pinch of cayenne pepper powder

Place the chicken in the slow cooker. Sprinkle with peppercorns, cumin, cayenne pepper, and bay leaves. Toss lime slices on top. Pour chicken broth over top of everything. Cook on high 4-5 hours (5 if frozen) and low 6-8 hours (8 if frozen). Making the chicken is definitely a step you can do in advance.

Soup
- 1 tomato, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1&1/2 cup of green onions, finely chopped
- 2 ripe avocados, mashed
- 1 cup of cilantro, finely chopped
- 1 lime sliced
- 2 tsp of grape seed oil
- ground sea salt & fresh pepper to taste
- 18 oz of whole wheat three cheese tortellini

In a large pot or dutch oven, heat grape seed oil. Saute tomato, garlic and green onions in pot about 3-5 minutes. Let cool enough to be safe to transfer to food processor. Blend saute mixture well in food processor.

When chicken is done, remove from slow cooker and shred or cut into bite sizes pieces. Strain broth (to remove fatty chicken pieces, peppercorns, bay leaves, and lime slices) into large pot or dutch oven used to saute vegetables. Bring to a boil. This is the base for your soup. Whisk saute mixture into soup base. Whisk mashed avocado into soup. Put tortellini and chicken into soup broth. Simmer, covered on low for 15-20 minutes.

To serve, place cilantro, lime slice(s), additional scallions (if desired) into a bowl, and ladle soup over top.