Chicken, Kale, and Quinoa Soup

25 Reviews
ADD YOUR REVIEW
Photo: Raymond Hom; Styling: Pamela Duncan Silver
Hands-on Time
59 Mins
Total Time
59 Mins
Yield
Serves 6 (serving size: about 1 2/3 cups soup and about 1 teaspoon bacon)
By Ann Taylor Pittman
October 2013
RECIPE BY Cooking Light

Best mash-up of all your favorites.

We took four of the top recipe search categories from our website--chicken, kale, quinoa, and soup--and combined them into one tasty dish that we think will become your new favorite. Rinse the quinoa to ensure that any bitter coating is removed.

Ingredients

  • 4 center-cut bacon slices
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
  • 3/4 cup chopped carrot
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
  • 6 garlic cloves, minced
  • Cooking spray
  • 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
  • 6 cups unsalted chicken stock
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2/3 cup uncooked quinoa
  • 6 cups chopped kale
  • 2 teaspoons thyme leaves

Nutritional Information

  • Calories 262
  • Fat 6.2g
  • Satfat 1.7g
  • Monofat 1.4g
  • Polyfat 1.6g
  • Protein 26.6g
  • Carbohydrate 26.3g
  • Fiber 3.9g
  • Cholesterol 77mg
  • Iron 3.2mg
  • Sodium 650mg
  • Calcium 147mg

How to Make It

Step 1

Cook bacon in a Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving drippings. Crumble bacon; set aside.

Step 2

Increase heat to medium-high. Add onion, carrot, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to drippings in pan; sauté 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Remove mixture from pan.

Step 3

Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Sauté 6 minutes or until chicken is browned and done. Stir in onion mixture, chicken stock, bay leaves, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper; bring to a boil.

Step 4

Place quinoa in a fine sieve; place sieve in a large bowl. Cover quinoa with water. Using your hands, rub grains together for 30 seconds; rinse and drain. ­Repeat procedure twice. Drain well. Add quinoa to pan; cover and simmer 15 minutes. Add kale and thyme to pan; simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes or until kale is tender. Discard bay leaves. Ladle soup into bowls; sprinkle with bacon.

Chef's Notes

MyRecipes is working with Let's Move!, the Partnership for a Healthier America, and USDA's MyPlate to give anyone looking for healthier options access to a trove of recipes that will help them create healthy, tasty plates. For more information about creating a healthy plate, visit www.choosemyplate.gov.

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Ratings & Reviews

With a few modifications it's great

MeredithAW
November 06, 2015
I read the other reviews and took their advice by adding the juice of 1whole lemon. I also added several different kind of meat: extra lean ground turkey, chicken thighs, turkey bacon and 2 chicken sausages. The chicken sausage is a great touch adds a lot of flavour. I also added barley in place of quinoa, it's a great substitute significantly more fibre then Quinoa. I also took the liberty to add GINGER about table spoon dried or a 1 inch cube fresh. The ginger added a lot of flavour. I also added celery, this helps a lot with flavour and pairs great with chicken stock. I left out the thyme but would've liked to add tarragon as suggested by other reviews but didn't have that either. All in all this soup is guilt free and delicious, I would definitely make it again Add: lemon, ginger,celery, chicken sausage, and extra lean ground turkey

Julia1000's Review

MaryCHS
February 17, 2015
I cooked the veggies with the bacon and added a little cayenne pepper to the chicken. I reduced the amount of quinoa to 1/2 cup, and added a can of cannellini. Delicious.

LVance's Review

Crpayne917
September 14, 2014
Delicious, healthy soup - the bacon is a great addition. I make a large batch and freeze it.

Allie33's Review

Allie33
September 02, 2014
N/A

LoniRV's Review

ahatfield
June 02, 2014
I love this simple soup. Although initially skeptical, I find myself making this again and again! The only thing I add is fresh minced ginger to the garlic sauté.

MaryCHS's Review

IoneTaylor
March 27, 2014
Made this soup last night and my husband and I both love it. The only thing I added was some shitakes. It sounded bland when I read it, but it was really full of flavor. Definitely a keeper.

PaulaMc's Review

LauraD318
March 22, 2014
I agree with the assessment of another reviewer that this was actually kind of bland. Here are the changes that I made to brighten the flavors up a bit. I added a can of petite diced tomatoes, the juice of a whole lemon and tarragon instead of thyme. Tarragon marries well with chicken, and has a lemony taste itself, so it worked well with the addition of the acidic components. I love the concept of all the healthy ingredients, so adding the tomatoes and the fresh lemon juice worked well with the kale and quinoa. I also sauteed everything in vegetable oil and then added some chopped canadian bacon instead of regular bacon, which cut down on the fat content. Very happy with the results.

Blinddogbookswa's Review

SandieBakes
January 19, 2014
N/A

MeredithAW's Review

wishokie1
December 29, 2013
N/A

Hokiehoo7's Review

seattlewah
November 18, 2013
This soup sounds great and is super healthy. We found it a little bit bland and wound up not adding the bacon to the final soup (tasted weird), but added lemon juice (1 whole lemon) which brightened it up and the soup is great now.