We're making chicken orzo pasta soup.
We're starting with a nutty fragrance in the kitchen.
I'm toasting the pasta in the soup.
We have fresh peas, carrots.
I've got carrot tops in with our herb mixture.
And purple shallots, spring leeks,
onion, or shallot, totally up to you, okay?
So here's our veg mix that we're just gonna sweat a bit,
in with our mixture of toasted-- (audio cuts out)
Olive oil and butter.
I've turned the heat very low
and we're just gonna sweat them a couple minutes.
And then we're going to add homemade or store bought
chicken bone broth or stock.
In the herb mix in,
this is the ranch combo we're using today,
we have the carrot tops, from the carrots, okay?
We have parsley. Fat handful of each.
We have chive, tarragon or basil, I have tarragon.
And dill, big handful of each.
To that, all we're gonna do is add the juice of one lemon,
squeezing cut side up so the seeds don't fall in,
two cloves of garlic, salt, pepper.
Turn it on and stream in a quarter to a third of a cup
of good EVOO, olive oil, good olive oil.
Now we've brought the liquid up to a boil,
three quarts of chicken stock, bone broth,
or if you poached your chicken,
you can use your poaching liquid of course.
Now we're going to take our chicken and just reheat it,
whether it was poached or rotisserie,
just gonna drop it into the soup just to warm it through.
The soup is fully cooked
so our pasta is cooked just through.
Little bit underdone, nice and got a little
bite to it still, al dente, our orzo.
Our veg is still pretty in color and bright in flavor.
And now we're going to stir in our herb mixture.
Once it was all processed and ground up,
we came out with just over a cup,
I'd say about a cup and a quarter of that herb mixture.
I took mm, two cups or so, couple of fat handfuls
of our spring lettuces and greens of any assortment
and I lined a really big bowl.
Like technically, that's probably
what you would consider a serving bowl.
This is one portion.
So we're gonna ladle this over.
And this will wilt the greens,
which is why we build it this way,
and why we store it separately from the creme fraiche,
sour cream, or Greek yogurt
that makes it taste like ranch dressing
when you eat the soup.
Don't want the milk solids to separate from the soup.
We just want it as a dollop to stir in.
Look at all of this vibrant color.
The lettuces, I mean, honestly, it's just so fragrant
and pretty to look at.
You can see the orzo, see how it stayed toasted in there?
Nice and toasty and nutty and fragrant.
Our beautiful greens popping up through.
How healthy and delicious.
So then we take a big dollop of creme fraiche,
yogurt, or sour cream, drop it right in the center.
Oh my gosh.
(chimes tinkling)