There’s a wonderful kick to this fabulous, Southern, main course soup. The small amount of bacon adds a little smokey flavor. The heartiness comes from the bounty of chicken and assorted veggies. Each yummy, large bowl of soup has just 228 calories and 3 grams of fat.
Ingredients
- 2 slices of bacon, diced, see shopping tips
- 1 cup onions, diced
- 1 cup celery, diced
- 1 cup red bell pepper, diced
- 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth, I like Swanson’s
- 1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes in juice
- 2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 to 1½ teaspoons Tabasco sauce or hot sauce, to taste
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cups cooked chicken breasts, diced, see shopping tips
- 4 cups fresh spinach
Instructions
- In a large pot, cook bacon over medium heat until almost crisp. Stir often.
- In the meantime, add onions, celery and bell peppers to a microwave-safe bowl. Cook in the microwave for 3 minutes, to soften.
- Add the softened vegetables and garlic to the pan of cooked bacon. Continue to cook for 3 minutes, stir often.
- Whisk in flour; cook for 2 minutes.
- Stir in broth, tomatoes, vinegar or lemon juice, Worcestershire, Tabasco sauce, thyme, sugar, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to low and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken. Stir often.
- Add in chicken and cook for 3 minutes. Add the spinach and mix well. Cook for 1 more minute.
Notes
Makes 4 main-course servings. Each serving, 2 cups.
Food Facts
Common Creole ingredients are onions, celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, and Tabasco sauce. Using broth as the base transforms it into a wonderful Creole soup. Tabasco sauce is a popular brand of hot-pepper sauce, produced on Louisiana’s Avery Island.
Shopping Tips
I’ve combed the supermarket shelves looking for one of the leanest regular bacon choices and Oscar Meyer Center Cut Bacon is my favorite, compared to most regular bacon. It’s much lower in fat and calories, 3 slices contain 70 calories and 4.5 grams of fat. Once cooked on paper towels, most of the fat soaks into the paper, not in the bacon, so the fat is further cut down.
Trader Joe’s sells packages of cooked, sliced, or chopped chicken breasts that are really tasty. If you buy a cooked chicken from the supermarket, be sure to remove the skin before chopping and adding to this soup.
WW Freestyle SmartPoints 2-Blue
WW SmartPoints 4-Green
WW POINTS PLUS 6
Food Facts
Common Creole ingredients are onions, celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, and Tabasco sauce. Using broth as the base transforms it into a wonderful Creole soup. Tabasco sauce is a popular brand of hot-pepper sauce, produced on Louisiana’s Avery Island.
Shopping Tips
I’ve combed the supermarket shelves looking for one of the leanest regular bacon choices and Oscar Meyer Center Cut Bacon is my favorite, compared to most regular bacon. It’s much lower in fat and calories, 3 slices contain 70 calories and 4.5 grams of fat. Once cooked on paper towels, most of the fat soaks into the paper, not in the bacon, so the fat is further cut down.
Trader Joe’s sells packages of cooked, sliced, or chopped chicken breasts that are really tasty. If you buy a cooked chicken from the supermarket, be sure to remove the skin before chopping and adding to this soup.
WW Freestyle SmartPoints 2-Blue
WW SmartPoints 4-Green
WW POINTS PLUS 6
| SKINNY FACTS: for a 2 cup serving 228 calories, 3g fat, 0g sat. fat, 0mg chol, 28g prot., 23g carbs, 4g fiber, 842mg sod, 8g sugar |
| FACTS: for Freestyle SmartPoints 48 calories, 0g sat. fat, 2g protein, 3g sugar |
Skinny Facts
Serving: 2cupsCalories: 228kcalCarbohydrates: 23gProtein: 28gFat: 3gSodium: 842mgFiber: 4gSugar: 8gBlue Smart Points: 2Green Smart Points: 4Plus Points: 6
Hello – new here – can u save recipes. you like to the site? Ruth
Welcome to Skinny Kitchen. So happy you found my site, Ruth! I’m sorry to say, at this point, there isn’t a way to save my recipes. My site is formatted a bit differently than other food blogs. What many people do is print out the recipes that they want to make or keep and create a binder.
Have fun skinny cooking!
My best,
Nancy