Sunday Soup Recipe and A Great Cozy Mystery!

I like soup. If I could I would make and eat soup everyday. My children and husband do not share my passion for hearty, warm soups so I shall share my love of soups with you.
Friday was particularly wet and cold, not bone chilling cold but soggy damp and the kind of cold that makes you feel utterly drained. Though I got a wonderful mail delivery with the arrival of Madelyn Alt's The Trouble with Magic. My friend Lisa K sent it to me. I read it years ago and loved it and now I have my own copy!  When I came home at lunch time from work,  I was in need of something a little more then a sandwich.  So I went to the pantry and brought out three items I bought several months ago and decided to create a soup with them. I always stock chicken stock in a carton to make soups faster. I make my own but there is little room in my freezer with a house full of boys so I looked at what I had and decided that I would try to make a soup out of a can of chick peas, a can of black beans and a jar of pesto sauce. Thursday night my freezer decided to give up the ghost, we caught it so I was able to slowly defrost chicken breasts in my fridge.

Recipe: For Karen's Chicken Pesto, Black Bean and Chick Pea Soup.
2 chicken breasts thawed
6 table spoons of classico pesto
1 onion
2 stalks of celery
1 large carrot
1 lt of Chicken stock (4 cups I added an additional two the next day as the liquid seemed to be absorbed by the chick peas over night)
1 tbsp of olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:
I started by pre heating my oven to 400 Degrees.
I then put the two chicken breasts into an oven safe dish and put 3 tablespoons of Classico Pesto on each breast and put them in the oven to bake.

I then chopped up my onion, carrot and celery and in a large pot I placed the olive oil and sweated the vegetables for about 5 minutes over medium heat. I opened the chick peas and black beans and drained and strained then rinsed them and added them to the pot. I stirred the peas and beans into the sauteed vegetables and then added my chicken stock. I let it come to a boil then turned it down to simmer while the chicken finished baking in the oven.  Once the chicken was done (25 mins in my oven at 400) I chopped it up and added it to the soup. I brought it back up to a boil added Salt and Pepper and then ladled it into my bowl.

A friend brought by the flat bread I enjoyed with my soup and it was amazing. I had the soup again for dinner last night and it was even better, The flavors melded well together and this is a soup I would happily make again.
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea, a bowl of soup, some southern poetry and a wonderful cozy mystery. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com