Chicken Lemon Pesto Soup (Recipe tweaked)

I can't get enough of this soup! I loved the taste of the Chicken Lemon sausage that I picked up at Marcello's Meats. At $12.50 for three sausages, it is a little rich for my budget (but it was oh so delicious!). I decided to take inspiration from Marcello's chicken lemon sausages and this is what I did. I made mini-chicken lemon meatballs. Our local grocery store sells ground chicken so I started there.  

Ground chicken

Gluten-free bread crumbs

Milk

Grated lemon zest

Lemon juice

Gluten-free Montreal Chicken spice blend

Gluten-free garlic spice blend

Thyme

Chicken Lemon mini-meatballs

Chicken broth

Carrots

Celery

Leeks

Garlic

Baby Spinach

Green Onions

Pesto

Sea Salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

White kidney beans

Parmesan cheese rinds

Pesto Chicken Soup II

I discovered a little Italian market in the neighbourhood that sold some lemon chicken sausage and oh-my-goodness is it ever good. I prefer the lemon chicken sausage over using chicken breasts in this soup. I was planning on adding white beans to the soup but someone beat me to the beans and I didn't have any spinach on hand to add to this version. Still a work in progress....

Lemon Chicken Sausage (casing removed and cut into pieces)

Chicken Stock

Diced Carrots

Diced Celery

Parmesan Cheese rinds

Lemon grass

Pesto

For a light lunch I added a simple cucumber and cherry tomato salad drizzled with some balsamic reduction.  

Happy Eating!