Soup Diary 100524

Since I'm heading out of town for a bit in a couple days, I've been cleaning out my fridge, and using up all my fresh vegetables. What better way to accomplish that goal than with some homemade soup? So I threw my remaining peppers, celery, carrots, onions and cilantro in some chicken broth, along with a can of white meat chicken and half a box of orzo that's been sitting on my shelf for longer than I care to remember. Not a radical mix by any means, but it sure turned out good. I really like cilantro as an alternative to parsley, and I also tried something I saw in a recipe in the soup cookbook I got from Nick and Eileen for Christmas: I browned up the chicken a bit in some olive oil after lightly covering the chicken in flour. I'm sure the effect would've been more apt if the chicken were raw to start with, but the flour definitely caused the broth to thicken up some, making this a little more than your typical chicken soup (which is not conveyed by the image above, found on the web). The orzo made it seem like a cross between chicken noodle and chicken rice, which was also kind of nice. In a few days, I'll be able to once again sample the superior varieties at Fables Cafe, but at least I'll be going in with the taste of a pretty darn good homemade soup still fresh in my mind (if not my mouth).