Mediterranean Chicken and Vegetable Soup Recipe
This Mediterranean chicken soup is hearty, filling, naturally gluten-free, and will keep you warm from the inside out on chilly days without adding an ounce of guilt (hello, Italian sausage and pasta). You could easily omit the chicken to keep the soup vegan. If you’re looking for another great vegan soup recipe that’s loaded with vegetables, try my Weight Loss Vegetable Soup. Even if you’re not trying to lose weight, it’s one of my favorite vegetable soups! There are plenty of veggies in this soup, including onions, celery, fire-roasted tomatoes, and kale. All those veggies keep you full for quite some time. Additionally, you can’t have chicken soup without chicken so there are tasty chunks of boneless skinless chicken breast as well as garbanzo beans for an extra boost of protein and fiber. (I used low-salt chicken stock so that I could control the sodium of the soup.)
What’s In Chicken Mediterranean Soup?
To make the healthy Mediterranean soup recipe, you’ll need:
Olive oil Veggies (onion, celery, garlic, kale, artichoke hearts, fire-roasted tomatoes, zucchini) Chicken breasts Chicken broth Garbanzo beans Lemon juice Cayenne pepper
How to Make Healthy Mediterranean Soup
Simply brown an onion with celery before adding raw chicken, garlic, and seasoning with a generous amount of Italian seasoning. Add fire-roasted tomatoes and all of their juices, artichokes, along with 64 ounces of chicken stock. After simmering briefly, add the kale, garbanzo beans, and turn off the heat. The kale will instantly turn vibrant green and wilt. Finish with lemon juice (read below why) and get ready to dive in.
Can I Use Different Vegetables?
Of course! Feel free to mix and match with the vegetables or beans of your choice. Easy additions or substitutions include zucchini, carrots, cannellini beans, swapping fresh spinach for kale, or incorporating fresh basil at the end. Although my family isn’t a big fan, black olives or the olives of your choice would really emphasize the Mediterranean theme.
Tips for Making Mediterranean Vegetable Soup
First, make sure you season sufficiently with salt. I use kosher salt and in this recipe used nearly two tablespoons. That sounds like a lot but when you need to flavor a pound of chicken, a gallon of chicken broth that was the low-sodium variety, and add flavor to all the various vegetables and greens, you need salt. Part of what makes soup so tasty and comforting is salt. Restaurants and prepared soup that comes in cans and cardboard containers tend to go overboard, but you do need a decent amount of salt to make soup taste like soup.
Secondly, I finish almost all my soups with a tablespoon or two of lemon juice. Sometimes I use apple cider vinegar, but the acidic presence of either lemon juice or vinegar really brightens the flavor profile in almost all soups that aren’t cream-based or a bisque (i.e. skip the acids in broccoli cheese soup, creamy tomato, shrimp bisque, and so forth). In a soup with a Mexican flair like Chicken Tortilla, I use lime juice. It is truly amazing with just a tiny bit of lemon/lime juice or vinegar can do to your soup. If you taste your soup and it seems a little flat, boring, or is lacking pizazz, it’s begging for a dash of an acidic liquid.
Thirdly, I frequently add a pinch of cayenne pepper to soup. I know there are people who loathe spicy food, and in most cases, I am not looking for my soups to be spicy, and I promise that the cayenne pepper doesn’t make the soup spicy in the least. Rather, in this case, the cayenne adds a depth of flavor and some oomph to what could otherwise be a big pot of bland. I am talking two shakes from the pepper shaker to a gallon of liquid and pounds of other ingredients. It would be chemically impossible for two shakes to turn things ‘spicy’. This is another situation where if you feel your soup is good, but missing something, try the cayenne pepper trick. Start with the tiniest pinch ever and see how it goes and work up from there.
More Quick Soup Recipes:
ALL OF MY EASY SOUP RECIPES! Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes! 15 Best Fast and Easy Soup Recipes – Warm up with these easy soup recipes! Most are ready in under 30 minutes and perfect for busy weeknights! Hearty, comforting, and so good!
Easy 30-Minute Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup – Classic, comforting, and tastes just like grandma made but way easier and faster! This soup is AMAZING and it’ll be your new favorite recipe!
Easy 30-Minute Kale, White Bean, and Chicken Soup – Loaded with juicy chicken, healthy kale, and tender beans! Easy, hearty, and satisfying! Love it when something healthy tastes so good!
Weight Loss Vegetable Soup – Trying to shed some pounds or get healthier? Try this easy, flavorful soup that’s ready in 30 minutes and loaded with veggies! Very filling and hearty! Zero WW points!
Easy 30-Minute Homemade White Chicken Chili – Hearty, healthy, loaded with tender chicken, and packed with bold flavor! Fast and easy comfort food that everyone loves! It’ll be on rotation all winter!
Easy 30-Minute Homemade Chicken Tortilla Soup – Chicken, tomatoes, corn, black beans, avocado, cheese, and addictively crunchy tortilla strips! Fast, easy weeknight meal, and better than from a restaurant!
Easy 30-Minute Homemade Chicken Tortellini Soup – An fun spin on classic chicken noodle soup using cheese tortellini! Fast, easy, comfort food that just hits the spot! You’ll make it over and over again!
The Best Broccoli Cheese Soup (Better-Than-Panera Copycat) – Make the best soup of your life at home in 1 hour! Beyond words amazing! One of the most popular recipes on my blog and gets RAVE reviews!
Easy 30-Minute Minestrone Soup (Better-Than-Olive-Garden-Copycat) – Homemade is always better and this soup is amazing! The best minestrone ever! Perfect for busy weeknights and it’s healthy!
Easy 30-Minute Chicken Vegetable Soup — Extra veggies instead of noodles in this HEALTHY, easy chicken soup that’s so FAST to make!! Hearty, filling, and satisfying! Perfect for weeknight dinners and chilly nights!!
Tomato, Beans, and Greens Soup — Trying to eat healthier? You’re going to love this EASY, hearty, HEALTHY soup that’s ready in 30 minutes and full of flavor and texture from the veggies!!
Easy 30-Minute Mushroom Vegetable Soup — Healthy, light yet satisfying, and full of rich savory flavor!! An Asian-inspired twist on vegetable soup that you’ll LOVE!!
Reset Vegetable Soup Recipe — Perfect for resetting after indulging!! Low in calories but high in nutrients and fiber! Easy, ready in 30 minutes, hearty, HEALTHY, and tastes AWESOME!!
