For Better Chicken Noodle Soup, Make It the Italian Way

Inspired by Italian pastina soup, this trick makes chicken noodle soup so luxurious and almost creamy without adding any cream. It doesn’t require any extra ingredients and takes just a few minutes.

Bowl of chicken noodle soup at a table setting — Simply Recipes / Sara Haas

Whether it is a seasonal cold or just the cold weather, it is hard to think of a dish more nourishing than chicken noodle soup. I've been making a lot of it these days.

Though starting with a rich, homemade chicken stock is an easy way to make my soup even more delicious, it takes time and effort. So, there's a simple step I take whenever I make chicken noodle soup—especially if I use store-bought stock or even when I use homemade stock: I purée some of the cooked vegetables and stock and add it back into the pot. This makes the soup so luxurious, almost creamy without adding any cream. It's a trick that doesn’t require any extra ingredients and takes just a few minutes.

This smart method for giving chicken noodle soup more oomph is inspired by pastina soup (AKA Italian penicillin soup), which sometimes blends the vegetables and broth until smooth before adding the pasta. Puréeing the base of the soup gives it so much more body and a gorgeous golden hue.

This is especially advantageous if you have a picky eater who doesn't like the texture of cooked vegetables. My kids love this upgrade to one of our family's favorite dishes.

A ladle spooning chicken noodle soup into a bowl — Simply Recipes / Alison Bickel

Try This Tip at Home With Any Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

Start by sweating the mirepoix—the chopped onions, carrots, and celery that make up the base of chicken noodle soup—with a little olive oil. Add the chicken stock and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Use a slotted spoon or ladle to scoop about half of the cooked veggies and some stock into a blender. Let the mixture cool for about five minutes—I use this time to add the chicken to the pot.

The key is not to add the chicken, noodles, or any hard herbs, like rosemary or thyme, until after you blend the vegetables. You don't want to purée any of these or you'll end up with a gloppy soup.

Carefully blend the vegetables until smooth, adding a little water or more stock to get the blade going. (Cover the blender with a kitchen towel to prevent hot splatters.) Once blended, return the puréed mixture to the pot and finish making your soup according to your recipe.

If you don't have a blender, use an immersion blender! Just be sure to remove your pot from the heat, keep the blade fully submerged the whole time, and blend on low speed for just a few seconds. The vegetables are tender, so it's easy to accidentally blend the whole pot. (This isn't necessarily a bad thing—it's just a personal preference.)

You can use this trick for almost any soup. It works especially well with simple ones (think Tuscan white bean or chicken and rice) as well as creamy soups, like broccoli cheddar or creamy gnocchi. Just wait to add the pasta and protein until after you blend the base.