The Easy Trick To Hiding Veggies In Your Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup is a classic comforting food for kids and adults. However, if you are opposed to adding vegetables, there is a good chance you're missing out on many beneficial vitamins and nutrients. Whether you are feeling sick or simply craving a hearty and wholesome meal, there is an easy trick to make sure your chicken noodle soup has veggies that everyone will eat. All you have to do is hide them.

Typically, chicken noodle soup contains three main vegetables: onion, carrot, and celery (also known as mirepoix). These veggies usually get sautéed down with spices and fresh herbs like thyme, parsley, and oregano. Then, the soft veggies are mixed with chicken, broth, and egg noodles for that classic cup of soup. Making chicken noodle soup all in one pot is a simple way of approaching this recipe, but blending your veggies with the broth hides them while still lending flavor to your soup. Simply prepare your soup as usual, remove the cooked chicken, blend your vegetables and broth together, and combine the ingredients again.

Hiding the veggies in soup is also a simple way to create a thicker broth. Instead of using a cornstarch slurry or flour-based roux as a thickener, taking a hand blender to your soup and emulsifying the vegetables will provide a depth of flavor and a more filling texture. Alternatively, if you don't have an immersion blender, you could place your veggies and some broth directly into a blender.

If you are considering hiding veggies in your soup broth by blending them up, you don't have to limit yourself to the traditional trio of vegetables. Other nutrient-dense options that are easily disguised in the broth include zucchini, cauliflower, eggplant, and peppers. Despite being non-traditional in chicken noodle soup, blending the veggies and adding the purée back into the broth leaves no one the wiser.

You can also emulsify your celery, onions, and carrots or keep some whole pieces throughout the soup for a familiar look. On top of these hidden veggies, adding lemon to your broth will bring a zesty citrus kick. Plus, using an acidic ingredient like lemon juice in your soup can enhance all the other flavors, so squeezing a little on top of each bowl is a delicious touch.

While chicken noodle soup already has a great amount of protein from the chicken and egg noodles, there's no harm in sneaking in more in the form of beans. Adding cooked and drained soft white beans to your blender with the other hidden veggies will not only increase the creaminess of the broth but will also pack a punch of protein. At the end of the day, many foods can hide in a blended broth so the key is finding which combination of ingredients tastes the best to you.