Sunday Supper - Asian Chicken and Watercress Soup

All last week I was dying for some chicken soup in the cold rainy weather. Even though it's been a gorgeous weekend I'm still hankering for some chicken soup so I decided to go with this lighter Asian influenced version. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Light, but made significant changes to put my own spin on it.

The recipe calls for poached chicken breasts and home made chicken broth. To be honest I kind of refuse to make my own stock. It seems like way too much work for too little gain. (This is not to say that I don't appreciate a great stock - I just know mine wouldn't be much tastier than a store brought one). So I went with 6 cups (42 oz) organic low sodium, free range chicken stock. and picked out the white meat chicken breast of a rotisserie chicken. I think it turned out just fine!

1. In a large pot bring broth, 2 red bell peppers thinly sliced, 2 tbs soy sauce, and 1 tbs Asian chili garlic paste to simmer. Cook until peppers are crisp and tender - about 6 minutes.

2. I additionally added a chunk of ginger, splash of fish sauce, some cilantro, a thinly sliced serrano chili, fresh enoki mushrooms, and half of a white onion (sliced not diced). All these ingredients made sense to me and added some punch to my store brought broth. The long strands of the mushrooms almost felt like noodles without the carbs.

3. I added the shredded chicken and a bunch of watercress and mixed well. Portion out into bowls and slice 2 scallions lengthwise into two inch thin pieces for garnish.