Soup, anyone?

We're having a rainy day here in GA. A great day for soup.

I blogged about Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Veronese Soup here and here. If this is the 3rd blog about it, you know it's gotta be good!

Well, forget that recipe in that 2nd blog. It's too hard and complicated.

My mom found the following recipe and made it. It is absolutely fantastic and easier, to boot! It tasted just like the Olive Garden one. So here is the best recipe for Chicken Gnocchi Soup in "my mother's own words".


CHICKEN GNOCCHI CREAM SOUP

1/3 c. olive oil or butter (I used butter for flavor)
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 lb. chicken (I just cut up some cooked chicken I had and
"eyeballed" it. It doesn't say the chicken should be cooked
ahead but I think it should be. Also, then it is quicker to put
together.)
1/3 C flour
1/2 carrot shredded (I used baby carrots shredded and again I
eyeballed the amount to what I thought
should be in the soup)
1 stick of celery cut small pieces (I didn't use this much)
1/2 cup chopped spinach (I used frozen spinach,thawed)
2 1/2 C milk (you can use 2% or skim) I used 2 Cups
1 1/2 C heavy cream (I used fat free half&half)
3 chicken bullion cubes ( I used Tones chicken stock which I
dissolved in a small bit of hot water)
pepper to taste
16 or 17.6 oz package of Gnocchi. If I make this again, I will cut
the gnocchi in half. They were kinda
big bites.

Melt butter in pot and add in the garlic and sautee. Add chicken and
heat thoroughly or cook more if the chicken is not already cooked
earlier.
Add flour and stir in flour and mix well until the flour is cooked
into the chicken
Add milk and cream and stir well
Add veggies and stir in
Add the bullion or Tones chicken stock & stir in
Add Gnocchi last. It only takes 4-5 min. to cook through
Mix ingredients well until soup thickens and stir occasionally.
Cover and simmer a few minutes.

I added a bit more Tones Stock as I thought it needed a bit more
flavor. Since dissolving that in water made it a bit thinner, I added
a little more flour to the stock. Stirred it into the soup until it
was of the right consistency and heated through.

All this only takes about 30 min to prepare from start to finish