Italian Vegetable Soup with Chicken and Tortellini

I've been making soup every Sunday, so this Sunday I tried to make a recipe up "on the fly". Well, it wasn't exactly entirely made up. To get started, I used some techniques from the Mexican Tortilla Chicken Soup I made a couple weeks ago.

I was a little nervous that I was making this big pot of soup that was going to taste awful, but it turned out great.

Italian Vegetable Soup with Chicken and Tortellini

Ingredients:

1 eggplant
2 zucchini
1 red bell pepper
1 can petit diced tomatoes
1 lb chicken, cooked and shredded
1 lb store bought whole wheat cheese tortellini
1 quart chicken stock
2 tablespoons olive oil
mozzarella cheese, for garnish

I also used the following spices, but didn't really measure them out (just a few shakes of the bottle they were in):
red pepper flakes
black pepper
oregano
basil
italian seasoning
parsley
rosemary
garlic powder
onion powder

Directions:



Chop all the vegetables listed above. While chopping, heat the olive oil in a stockpot. Add the vegetables and canned tomatoes to the pot and let cook for about 15-20 minutes until they are cooked down and pulpy.



Add the stock and seasonings and let simmer for about 20 minutes more.



Add the tortellini and let cook until 'al dente', about 7 minutes.



Before serving, add the chicken. Garnish with your desired amount of mozzarella cheese on top and enjoy!



Servings: about 8 bowls



Review:
This soup was pretty good. Just the right amount of spice, and the vegetable combination went perfect with the tortellini. Next time, I might use toretllini stuffed with chicken and omit the shredded chicken altogether. I also wanted to add sweet peppers to the soup, but the store was out of them. I think I'll try to add those next time, too.