Gnocchi Chicken Minestrone Soup

It's soup season, I love it. Yesterday was a snowy, blustery day and it just felt like we needed to have soup for dinner. So I started running through my recipe files and nothing seemed quite right. Then I happened to check my email and the Taste of Home recipe of the day was this soup. It immediately sounded like what we needed to have for dinner. An added bonus was I'm not super familiar with gnocchi so it was a good opportunity to give it a shot. I wasn't crazy enough to make my own but I will probably give it a whirl at some point. Not this week however!

I really liked this recipe as did Jeff. Randy was positive but didn't absolutely LOVE it and Bri was once again not home so she didn't even try it. Overall it was a do again. It would also be good with regular pasta if gnocchi isn't your thing. Lots of chopping however....it's a good thing I have some awesome knives!

Gnocchi Chicken Minestrone Soup
Serves 8
adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients:
1 1/4 lb chicken breast cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 Tbs olive oil divided
1 each small red, yellow, and green peppers finely chopped
1 medium zucchini, finely chopped
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1/3 cup chopped proscuitto or deli ham
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cans chicken broth (14 1/2 oz each)
1 can Italian diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can white kidney or cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 c. frozen peas
4 Tbs tomato paste
1 pkg potato gnocchi (or pasta of your choice)
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan, Asiago, or Romano cheese
8 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced (for garnish, totally opt)

Directions:
1. Sprinkle chicken with oregano, salt, and pepper. In a Dutch oven , saute chicken in 1 Tbs oil until no longer pink. Remove from pan and set aside.
2. In the same pan, cook the peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, and onion in remaining oil until tender. Add prosciutto and garlic; cook 1 min longer.
3. Add the broth, tomatoes, beans, peas, tomato paste and chicken. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Meanwhile cook gnocchi or pasta according to pkg directions and drain. Stir into soup. Garnish each serving with cheese and basil.

1 1/3 c. servings Cal 324; Fat 8g.; 59 mg cholesterol; Carb 38 g.; Fiber 4 g.; Protein 27 g.