recipe – tortellini spinach soup

Stephen has always been anti-soup for whatever reason. So a personal mission of mine has been to find soup-worthy recipes and make him fall in love with them. Stuffed pasta pockets were an easy way for him to give a thumbs up for this recipe.

Although the tortellini is the show in this dish, I think secretly the tomato and spinach play a solid side role. Also a fun way to get a picky-eater to eat their veggies (lookin’ at you Stephen).

The sauce foundation is based off a roux made with sauteed onions. I personally don’t have issues with making the roux slightly clumpy because of the onions, but I know some do. You can always add the onions after if any concern.

To the gravy at this point (since the liquid was a dash of milk and then chicken stock), I add diced tomatoes. You can use any type of canned tomatoes, but diced (not whole) is ideal because the chunkiness helps with the consistency with the dish.

Now for the star of the show. Obviously any stuffed pasta would work, but I like those cheap frozen tortellinis found in almost every grocery store.

Once the soup portion comes to a slight boil, dump in the torts and cook slightly under the amount on the directions. Obvs these are gonna sit in hot soup for a while so we don’t want to overcook them.

Midway for the above step, drop in a shit ton of spinach. Like the whole bag in batches if you can. It’ll wilt so small it won’t be any problem. Same with the herbs.

Once everything is warmed up together, it’s ready to serve. It’s quite a filling dish, and doesn’t really come off as a “soup” recipe. For any person who loves stuffed-pastas, this is definitely a new way to serve it. Since Stephen ate almost the whole pot (with a bunch of parmesan cheese and hot sauce), I feel like I should make this more often.

—ingredients—

2 bags of frozen tortellini (13 oz each)
14 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup milk
About 2 cups chicken stock
About 1 lb of spinach
Handful of cilantro/parsley
Paremsan cheese to top

—directions—

1. Saute the chopped onion on medium-high with a drizzle of olive oil. Continue to stir so it doesn’t stick, about 5 minutes.
2. Once slightly translucent, add the flour and continue to stir. Make sure there’s enough oil to combine everything into a slight ball.
3. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
4. Add milk slowly, continuing to stir. Once thinned out and no clumps of flour, add the chicken broth and still stir. Add canned tomatoes after a few minutes of stirring in the broth.
5. Once soup mixture comes to a slight boil, drop in the 2 packs of frozen tortellini. Only about 5 minutes need to cook it through, so halfway through add the spinach and herbs.
6. Stir and taste for any final seasonings.
7. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.