Gnocchi Soup

While wandering aimlessly through Wal-mart, wondering what to make for dinner I realized two things: 1-It was super snowy, which means Mother Nature is basically daring me not to make soup, and 2-My husband was going to be late at work and probably wouldn't eat dinner with us so he wouldn't be disappointed if I decided to have soup for dinner (he doesn't like soup. Wha?) Boo-yah! So my mind started turning and kept getting stuck thinking about that gnocchi soup at Olive Garden. This recipe certainly isn't exactly like that soup, but it's what I came up with based on the ingredients I thought to get and what I already had.

4 Tbsp. butter :)
1 onion chopped
2 stalks celery chopped (I didn't have this, but it would've been good)
2+ cloves garlic minced
4 Tbsp. flour
8 C. chicken stock (or whatever you have supplemented with water)
3 carrots peeled and sliced
1 head cauliflower chopped small
cooked chicken pieces (rotisserie chicken, canned chicken, etc.)
1 pkg. gnocchi
1/2 bag spinach chopped
2 C. whipping cream :)
salt
pepper
thyme, parsley, nutmeg, whatever


Melt the butter then saute onions, garlic and celery until cooked. Add flour to make a roux. Cook for about a minute. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Let it thicken up a bit, then add carrots and cauliflower. Cook about 15 min. until veggies are good and soft.

At this point I would've liked to use my immersion blender to blend it up all creamy (which maybe would've eliminated the need for the cream), but my  immersion blender melted in the dishwasher, so I just went ahead and added the gnocchi. Let the gnocchi cook 2-3 minutes, or until it floats to the top. Add chicken, spinach and cream. Heat through. Add whatever spices your heart desires.

Serve with this French bread, but only if you read the recipe before you started cooking because the bread needs to be made first. You can whip this soup up while the bread bakes. And if you bake your bread on your silpat mat that was last used to make cinnamon rolls and your bread has a very slight cinnamon taste, it's a good thing.

Mmmmm.