We love a nourishing bowl of soup and eat it year round! This Quinoa Pizza Soup was a soup my daughter ‘L’ requested! She wrote a list of ingredients that she would like to include in the soup, went grocery shopping and then we created this delicious hearty soup! It is thick and tastes just like a pizza in a bowl! Yummy! We virtually always have a bread or a biscuit of sorts with our soup which I find to extend the meal and feed a hungry family.
Try these delicious biscuits here: https://www.ourcityhomestead.com/old-fashioned-drop-biscuits/ or these fluffy biscuits here: https://www.ourcityhomestead.com/moms-tea-biscuits/
Let’s get started!
First off, we need to chop our onion, celery and carrot and toss it in the pot. Chop the red pepper and set aside. Slice the pepperoni (or in our case turkey bites) and set aside. Measure out quinoa. Drain the olives. Drain the kidney beans and rinse, then open the pasta sauce and set it aside. Last minute we decided to add spinach, so rough chop a few handfuls. My daughter grabbed the ingredients and I helped her prep them – such a great and easy way to get kids cooking in the kitchen!
Toss the onion, celery and carrot in the pot with a splash of oil, and water, salt and pepper along with Italian seasoning.
Once onion is tender, add pepperoni. Brown, about 8 minutes.
Add pasta sauce (or tomato sauce works great), beans and quinoa. Add chicken broth (we use chicken stock pods so we add it just before the liquids). Add 6 cups of water to start. Cook 30 minutes, stirring often.
Add a sprinkle of Italian seasoning and an additional sprinkle of salt and pepper. If soup is too thick, add more water now. Add red pepper. Cook another 15 minutes.
Add spinach. Stir to wilt. Turn stove off.
Once spinach has wilted, it is ready to serve. This is a thicker-type soup – almost like a stew — stoup!!
This hearty soup has the flavors of pizza and is simply delicious! Add olives now if you like. We left them out and we added them to our own bowls so we could add as many, as few, or even no olives – whatever we liked! You can also add mushrooms or any other of your favorite pizza toppings to this soup. It is super versatile!
This soup is also wonderful the next day! You can also freeze in individual portions if you are in need of a quick lunch another day or freeze in a larger batch to enjoy later. Can you not smell this pizza in a bowl, soup-style!?!
Quinoa Pizza Soup
1 onion, diced
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 cup chopped pepperoni
2/3 cup quinoa
1 chicken stock pod or 3 cups chicken stock
1 can – 540ml/19oz – white kidney beans, drained & rinsed or beans of choice
1 can – 680ml – pasta sauce of choice or tomato sauce
3 to 5 cups water
1 red pepper, chopped
2 cups roughly chopped spinach
salt and pepper
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 small can sliced black olives
To a large pot, add onion, celery and carrot. Sprinkle with a bit of salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Saute until onion is tender. Add pepperoni. Cook until lightly browned. Add quinoa, chicken stock, beans, pasta sauce and water. Stir well. Cook, slightly covered for 30 minutes. If soup is too thick, add more water. Add red pepper, salt and pepper and 1 tsp Italian seasoning, and cook another 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and add spinach. Stir. Serve with parmesan cheese and shredded cheese if you would like.
