Soup w/ Black Rice and Chicken

The French Onion Soup from yesterday: a Classic. The Purple Lime Soup today: totally Nouveau.

Purple Lime Soup: Wasatch Mountain Chef

Purple Lime Soup
4 cups water
1 tablespoon chicken stock paste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cooked black rice (Cilantro Lime is a great choice)
1 1/2 cups chopped roasted chicken
1/2 cup diced purple onion
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Greek yogurt and avocado for garnish
Heat water and stock paste to a boil in a medium size sauce pan. Stir in salt, rice, chicken and onion. Cook for 7 to 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine lime juice and corn starch until smooth. Pour into soup and stir well. Return to a simmer and cook another 3 or 4 minutes. Stir in cilantro, adjust seasonings and serve garnished with yogurt and avocado. Serves 4.

Hints: This soup pulls together quickly if you have some leftover rice and some roasted chicken in your freezer. Start the water heating as you chop the chicken and dice the onion. Coconut Black Rice is another great choice in this recipe but plain black rice works well. The lime flavor is very pronounced and if you want, you can certainly cut back on the amount used. Roasted chicken has a better flavor than boiled or steamed chicken, but as always, use what you have on hand. I'm going to try adding some diced sweet potato to this soup next time. Won't that be colorful?!

Variety is the stuff of great eating. Classic to trendy and everywhere in between. Learn some basic techniques with classics and then let your imagination take you places. (Everything won't always turn out great but most of it will.) Then you become the author of your own culinary destiny!