chicken lemon rice soup

A couple of our good friends, Kyle and Ed, came in town to visit Nate and me allllll the way from Austin, so in order to cut costs down a bit, we made dinner most nights.  It turned out that we made some absolutely wonderful dishes!  The first one we came upon was for a lemon rice soup and after deciding that it sounded interesting, we made a go at it.  Adding a bit of chicken seasoned with tarragon was just enough to spruce up this lemon rice soup to aaaamazing.  Of course, feel free to leave the chicken out for al of you vegan or vegetarians out there :)

Chicken Lemon Rice Soup

adapted from fresh 365

Ingredients
1½ lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast

2 Tablespoons dried tarragon

2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin olive oil

8 cups vegetable stock, low sodium
1½ cup Arborio rice

¾ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

½ lb silken tofu
the zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Season chicken breasts with tarragon and salt.  Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil on a grill pan and place the chicken in the pan.  Cook for about 7 minutes on each side or until no pink remains in the middle.  Slice and cube, then set aside for later.

Next, using a large stockpot, pour all 8 cups of vegetable stock and bring to a boil.  Add Arborio rice, reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes or until rice is cooked.  Blend the lemon juice and tofu until well combined and add to the vegetable broth and rice mixture.  Stir and continue to simmer five minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  If you so wish, garnish with a slice of lemon.

Now our "soup" came out to be more like the consistency of a gumbo, but either way, it was ridiculously yummy.  As some sides to serve with this, we chopped some cucumbers and made a Greek yogurt, dill sauce to cover them in.  We also made a spinach salad with garbanzo beans, feta, and balsamic dressing.  Now that was a meal I look forward to making again!