Red Bean Chicken Curry Soup

The other night when looking for something to make for dinner, I came across one of the products we purchased during our recent trip to Bob’s Red Mill: a bag of Whole Grains and Beans Soup Mix.  I looked at the recipe on the back of the bag and could see that it required three chicken breasts and I knew that I had some already cooked in the freezer that I could use.  I removed the two frozen chicken breasts from the freezer and started them thawing.

When it was time to make the soup, I was able to skip the browning and cooking of the chicken breasts and I moved directly to sauté the chopped white onion.  While the onion was sautéing, I cut the two chicken breasts into 1/2-inch cubes and then added all the chicken to the onion to heat.  I added 1/2 the specified amounts of garlic and curry powder (I am still not big on too much curry after my trip to India last year).  We didn’t have any garam masala, so I skipped adding that combination of spices.

I added the eight cups of chicken stock, two bay leaves, and 1/2 the packages of Bob’s Red Mill soup mix to the pot and mixed.  After I brought the soup to a boil, all I had to do was let it simmer for ninety minutes while I occasionally gave it a stir.

We ended up having the soup for dinner the next night, I added a little salt and pepper to my bowl, but I thought the rest of the seasoning was just right.  The beans were cooked yet firm and some of the other grains were still a little crunchy which gave the soup and nice texture.  The chicken didn’t add much flavor which was nice as it didn’t compete with the curry.

I look forward to making this soup again.  I will probably add the full amount of curry next time as my wife really likes the curry flavor.  Maybe by that time, I will have eased up on my aversion to curry flavored foods.

Find the recipe here: http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes_detail.php?rid=1686

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell