Soups
Creamy Zucchini Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
Prep
10 minutes
Cook
40 minutes
Yield
6 -8
This creamy, delicious Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup has zucchini, lemon, and garlic to make it incredibly flavorful and filling.
There is no better pair than zucchini and lemon. Oh wait, there is! When you combine zucchini and lemon with creamy orzo in a delicious, comforting bowl of Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup. This soup is Greek-inspired and is so delicious. Best part? The chicken is an optional add in so you can totally make this recipe vegetarian.
❤️🍋 Why You’ll Love Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
- Quick: Prep this soup in 10 minutes and have it ready to eat in under an hour
- Flavorful: Did I not mention the freshness of the lemon combined with the zucchini and creamy orzo?
- Garlic: This recipe uses a TON of garlic and it’s so damn good. I love garlic!
- Protein Add-In: Add in shredded chicken to make this soup even more protein-packed
🍲 Ingredients
Garlic: Garlic doesn’t only add flavor to just about any dish, but it also is loaded with healthy nutrients. It has manganese, vitamins B6, and C, and fiber. It also is great at boosting your immune system.
Zucchini: Zucchini is so versatile that you can even bake with it! What makes zucchini so good for you is that it’s high in fiber, packed with important vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and bonus, it tastes great!
Orzo: Orzo is a form of short-cut pasta that kind of looks like a grain of rice. It’s great to add to soups.
👩🍳 How to Make Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
1. In a large soup pot add the olive oil and heat for 20-30 seconds on medium-high heat before adding your diced yellow onion. Sweat this out for around 3 – 5 minutes. Mince the garlic + add it to the pot. Cook for 2 – 3 minutes until fragrant and slightly soft. Stir in the orzo, fresh parsley, onion powder, salt, and black pepper. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until golden and toasted.
2. Add the zucchini, kale, lemon juice + zest, cooking for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the bouillon paste and boiling water to the pot.
4. Bring to high heat and allow to boil and cook for 8 – 10 minutes until the orzo is tender.
5. Stir in the coconut milk/ heavy cream and parmesan cheese, cooking for 5 more minutes. If you are adding in shredded chicken, add it in here.
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- Orzo: Be sure to cook the orzo until soft, test it along the way, and allow it to cook longer if needed.
- If you love this soup you can also try my version with rice here
🗒 Substitutions
- Kale: Swap kale for spinach if you prefer
- Garlic: You can use the jarred garlic if the idea of peeling and mincing 10 cloves sounds like too much work
- Chicken: The chicken in this recipe is entirely optional. You can leave it out and make this recipe as is or add shredded cooked chicken at the end to add in additional protein
🗒 Other Soup Recipes You’ll Love
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Store soup in the fridge in a tightly sealed container for 3 – 4 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
🤔 Common Questions
Make this dairy-free/vegan by swapping the butter + parmesan cheese for a plant-based one!
Absolutely. Freeze soup in an airtight container once it has cooled and it’s an easy way to have quick and healthy meals to pull out of the freezer whenever you want.
Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup 🍋
Your Greek mommy that is. 😍 Step into my kitchen to learn how to make yummy Greek food. 🍽️💃
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp vegan or regular butter
- 2 medium white onions
- 10 garlic cloves minced (adjust as per your families likeness to garlic)
- 1 cup of orzo
- 6 tbsp. fresh parsley chopped
- 1 1/2 tbsp. onion powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 4 medium zucchinis grated
- 4 cups green kale chopped
- 2 tbsp. bouillon paste
- 4 cups of boiling water
- 1-398 ml can coconut milk or heavy cream
- 3 lemons zest + juice
- 1 cup parmesan cheese or cheese of choice vegan will work just fine
Instructions
- In a large soup pot add the olive oil and heat for 20-30 seconds on medium-high heat before adding your diced yellow onion. Sweat this out for around 3 – 5 minutes. Mince the garlic + add it to the pot. Cook for 2 – 3 minutes until fragrant and slightly soft. Stir in the orzo, fresh parsley, onion powder, salt, and black pepper. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until golden and toasted.
- Add the zucchini, kale, lemon juice + zest, cooking for another 5 minutes.
- Add the bouillon paste and boiling water to the pot.
- Bring to high heat and allow to boil and cook for 8 – 10 minutes until the orzo is tender.
- Stir in the coconut milk/ heavy cream and parmesan cheese, cooking for 5 more minutes.
Adjust any seasonings to taste.
- Serve immediately with additional fresh parsley!
Video
Another winner from Maria! This creamy base soup is so light and bright and refreshing. It’s not heavy at all. I did end up using heavy cream and I omitted kale because that’s not my favorite to chew on and soup. I love the idea of chicken soup, but I really don’t enjoy the texture of chicken in my soup so this was a really nice compromise and a great way to use a lot of zucchini in one recipe that is not for bread. This one’s definitely going in the regular super rotation. I personally added oregano because I needed a little more earthiness. I can see how basil or sweet margarine would also be good if those are your herbs of preference.
This makes me so happy, thank you so much for the love!
We loved it! So bright and delicious.
this makes me so happy! Thank you so much!
I doubled mine and used a quick pot, and it turned out very well!!
love that!
Love this so much! I’m going to attempt to double it !
easy! just use the 2X button on the top right of the recipe card!