Ooh..its December! I cannot believe it. How did we roll into December suddenly? Weren’t we enjoying summer just a few weeks back! Well at least it seemed like a few weeks back! And wait, it just seems like a few months ago that we welcomed 2017! And now you are telling me that we are ready to usher in 2018? The fact that 2017 went by so quickly seems especially strange to me since I quit my job in Feb 2017 and at that time (very naively I guess) thought that the year will pass by relatively slowly now that I did not need to juggle 101 things on one day! I guess I was wrong about that one! I mean I still ended up juggling 101 things -Hmm..maybe not 101 but 99 for sure 🙂
Oh boy, and that brings us into wintery world with cold, icy spells, snowy blizzards and worst of all ‘darkness at 4’ evenings to look forward to!. I hate that the most. I mean why do they have to pull back the clock? At least give us 1 more hour of brightness during the day! Is that so much to ask for!
OK OK …So all this only means one thing. There will be lots and lots of soup nights in the K household! Having the Instant Pot makes it even easier! Since you put everything that you fancy into the pot, start the timer and go your merry way…which for me means straight back under my blanket 🙂 And when the Mr and kiddos are ready, we will unplug the Pot and have our dinner. Some ‘deli bought’ fresh dinner rolls for them while I dive into a double large bowl for myself! My grain free diet is a good enough excuse for me to indulge shamelessly!
And one of our all time favorite soups is ‘Chicken noodle’. The ultimate in comfort food! And now finally I have a Paleo version of this soup! Dried Sweet Potato noodles to the rescue – TADA! If you read my post on Korean Style sweet potato noodles you will be familiar with these noodles. These are made from sweet potato starch and when you cook them they appear translucent and glassy. They are a little slimier than your regular flour noodles but they taste great. And I am really fortunate that my kids love them too. So I substitute these noodles for the flour noodles, add lots of veggies, some ginger, lots of sea salt, hardly any spices and you get this bowl of comfort that you do not want to share with anybody else!
Last time when I made this, I threw in a whole bunch of spinach towards the end and so we ended up having a green chicken noodle soup! No one cared or complained about the color. They were too busy slurping away! Seriously, guys this soup was so delicious and there are no spices in it! 100% AIP Compliant!
Video for this recipe is also available! Check it out:
Sharing this recipe at the Paleo AIP recipe Roundtable this week hosted by Phoenix Helix.
- 1 tbsp olive oil or avocado oil or coconut oil
- ½ of a red onion, chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 1 medium size carrot, diced
- 1 cup mushrooms sliced
- about 1 tsp sea salt
- About 1 tbsp fresh ginger, chopped very fine or grated (about 1 inch by ¼ inch piece)
- 1 tsp fresh garlic, chopped fine (optional)
- 1 green serrano chillies, chopped fine (optional - omit for AIP)
- 6-8 whole black peppercorns (omit for AIP)
- 6 cups water
- 1.5 lb of chicken thighs
- 2 cups additional water
- 1 cup broccoli florets or 1 cup scallions, chopped
- 2 cups fresh spinach leaves, roughly chopped
- 12 oz pack of dried sweet potato noodles
- ¼ cup fresh parsley or cilantro (optional)
- freshly ground black pepper as needed (omit for AIP)
- additional sea salt as needed
- Set the Instant Pot to Saute mode. Add the oil. Let heat for 1 min and then add the onions, celery, carrots and mushrooms. Stir fry for 2 mins. Then add the salt, ginger and garlic and chillies (if adding). Add the whole peppercorns(if adding) Stir for another 30 secs. Then add the chicken pieces and the water. Close the lid on the Instant Pot and set valve to sealing position. Press Pressure Cook button and set time to 10 mins. Release steam carefully and once the valve goes all the way down, open the lid. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken pieces into a bowl and add the additional water. Let cool for a few mins and then shred the chicken pieces using your hands.
- Add the chicken pieces and the water back into the Instant Pot along with the noodles and the spinach, broccoli, mushrooms and the fresh parsley or cilantro(if adding). Place lid partially covering it (do not start pressure cook) and cook again for 3 mins. Add freshly ground pepper(if adding) as needed and check for seasoning and serve soup warm!
- Heat a large cooking pot with the oil. Let heat for 1 min and then add the onions, celery, and carrots. Stir fry for 2 mins. Then add the salt, ginger and garlic (if adding). Stir for another 30 secs. Then add the chicken pieces and the water. Cover the pot (leaving a small vent open) on low heat for 20 mins.
- Turn heat off and open pot and transfer chicken pieces to a bowl. Keep aside to cool and then shred the chicken pieces.
- Meanwhile, heat another large cooking pot with water. When it starts boiling, add the noodles to it and let cook for about 4 mins on medium heat. Then drain the noodles carefully using a large strainer. Rinse the noodles once with cold water.
- Add the noodles to the soup pot along with the shredded chicken pieces and the spinach and the parsley (if adding). Cook on low simmer uncovered for 2 mins until the spinach gets cooked. Turn heat off and add freshly ground pepper (if adding)as needed and check for seasoning. Serve warm!
You can use kitchen shears to cut the noodles into smaller lengths before serving to make it easier to serve and eat.
You can add any additional herbs like thyme and or rosemary too.
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