I made a pretty good soup today:
3/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
garlic, to taste
onion, to taste
french herb mix, to taste (savory, thyme, rosemary, basil, tarragon, lavender flowers)
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1 qt chicken stock (or 4 c. water and 2 chicken bullion cubes), divided
1 cup rice
1 cup milk
4 T butter
4 T flour
1 cup cooked chicken, cubed or shredded (I used leftover rotisserie chicken)
Add celery, carrot, garlic, onion, salt, french herb mix, and 1/4 cup chicken stock to large pot. Saute veggies until soft. Add rice and 2 1/4 cups chicken stock, then cook for 20 minutes, until rice has absorbed liquid.
In a smaller pot, melt butter and add flour. Slowly mix in milk. Add this creamy mixture and the chicken to the rice. At this point, the "soup" will be pretty thick, so I dumped the rest of my container of chicken stock into the pot, and it was like eating soup in a bread bowl. But if you prefer a thinner soup, you can add more water or milk.
I think I probably got the french herb mix at Whole Foods. It brings out the sweetness in the milk.
