Prepare a generous pot of this hearty and intensely flavorful chicken quinoa soup on your stove to chase away chilly weather or to provide a soothing meal when you’re feeling under the weather. It’s a wonderful twist on classic chicken noodle soup, boasting an impressive protein content and an abundance of wholesome ingredients that will leave you feeling satisfied and nourished.

Our Chicken Quinoa Soup is not only quick to prepare, taking less than an hour from start to finish, but it’s also an excellent choice for meal prepping and offers immense comfort on days when you need an extra lift. This convenient one-pot soup recipe shares its straightforward cooking method with our popular one-pot golden chicken curry soup, featuring some of the same delicious and immune-boosting ingredients for a truly revitalizing experience.

Why This Chicken Quinoa Soup is Your Next Favorite Meal

More than just a delicious dish, our Chicken Quinoa Soup offers a wealth of benefits that make it an essential addition to your recipe repertoire. It’s designed to nourish your body, delight your taste buds, and simplify your meal planning, making healthy eating both easy and enjoyable.

• Nutritional Powerhouse: This soup is a truly wholesome meal, packed with lean protein from chicken, complete protein and fiber from quinoa, and a vibrant array of essential vitamins and minerals from fresh vegetables. It actively supports muscle health, aids digestion, and contributes to your overall well-being, keeping you energized and feeling great.
• Naturally Gluten-Free: For those with gluten sensitivities, celiac disease, or simply seeking a naturally gluten-free diet, this soup is a fantastic and safe option. Quinoa provides a satisfying, hearty texture without any gluten, making it accessible and enjoyable for everyone at your table.
• An Immune-Boosting Elixir: Featuring potent ingredients like fresh ginger, aromatic garlic, and a colourful assortment of fresh vegetables, this soup is a natural choice when you need an immune system boost. It’s often referred to as “healing soup” for a reason – its ingredients are renowned for their anti-inflammatory and immune-supporting properties, helping you recover and stay healthy.
• One-Pot Convenience: Say goodbye to piles of dirty dishes and complicated cleanup! This recipe is a true one-pot wonder, minimizing your time spent scrubbing and maximizing your enjoyment. Everything cooks together in a single pot, allowing all the rich flavors to meld beautifully and efficiently.
• Incredibly Flavorful: Beyond its impressive health benefits, this soup is bursting with complex and inviting flavors. The aromatic base, combined with unique herbs like bright lemongrass and earthy rosemary, creates a taste profile that is both profoundly comforting and excitingly fresh, tantalizing your palate with every spoonful.
• Perfect for Meal Prep: Its robust and well-balanced nature means it reheats beautifully without losing texture or flavor, making it an ideal candidate for meal preparation. Cook a large batch on Sunday, and you’ll have delicious, nutritious lunches or dinners ready to enjoy throughout the busy week.

Key Ingredients for Our Wholesome Chicken Quinoa Soup

Our nourishing chicken quinoa soup is brimming with feel-good ingredients, thoughtfully chosen for both outstanding flavor and significant health benefits. Here’s a detailed look at what you’ll need to create this comforting and revitalizing masterpiece:

• The Aromatic Foundation (Veggies): We build our soup on a classic, profoundly flavorful base of freshly chopped carrots, crisp celery, pungent yellow onion, and aromatic minced garlic. These foundational vegetables are meticulously sautéed to perfection, a crucial step that releases their inherent sweet and savory notes, creating an indispensable rich depth of flavor that defines the soup’s character.
• Healing Herbs & Spices: This soup truly shines with its unique and powerful blend of healing ingredients. Fresh ginger adds a warm, spicy kick, renowned globally for its anti-inflammatory properties and ability to soothe. Fragrant lemongrass introduces a bright, distinctly citrusy, and slightly floral note, while earthy rosemary and classic bay leaves work in harmony to infuse the broth with an incredible, inviting aroma and a deeply satisfying taste. For an optional, subtle warmth and complexity, we often love adding just a tablespoon of our favorite hot sauce.
• Hearty Quinoa & Beans: These two versatile ingredients not only add wonderful texture to the soup but also provide a significant, dual boost of plant-based protein and dietary fiber. Quinoa, often hailed as a superfood, is a complete protein, offering all nine essential amino acids, which makes this soup incredibly satisfying, exceptionally nutritious, and a fantastic energy source. Great Northern beans further contribute to the soup’s hearty nature and provide additional fiber, supporting digestive health.
• Lean Protein (Chicken): Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are our preferred choice for lean, high-quality protein in this recipe. They cook directly within the savory broth, absorbing all the wonderful, complex flavors, and are then easily shredded to add a tender, succulent, and highly satisfying texture to every single spoonful, ensuring a fulfilling meal.
• Brightening Lemon Juice: A generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the very end of the cooking process is absolutely crucial and acts as a flavor catalyst. It cuts through the richness of the broth, brightens and enlivens all the layered flavors, and adds a delightful, zesty zing that perfectly elevates the entire soup, bringing all the components into harmonious balance.

Customize Your Bowl: Delicious Chicken Quinoa Soup Variations

One of the best and most appealing aspects of this chicken quinoa soup recipe is its inherent flexibility! Feel free to get creative in the kitchen and adapt it effortlessly to your personal taste preferences, dietary needs, or simply to whatever fresh ingredients you happen to have on hand. Here are some fantastic and inspiring variations to try, ensuring every bowl can be uniquely yours:

• Amp Up the Veggies: This wholesome soup serves as a perfect and versatile vehicle for incorporating even more nutritious vegetables into your diet.
  • Heartier Additions (cook with carrots & celery): For ingredients that require more cooking time, consider incorporating diced potatoes, tender chunks of cauliflower or broccoli florets, sweet potatoes for a delightful touch of natural sweetness, or earthy, umami-rich mushrooms. Add these at the beginning with the carrots and celery so they cook thoroughly.
  • Quick-Cook Options (add with 15 minutes left): To maintain a pleasant bite and vibrant color, stir in sliced bell peppers (any color will work beautifully), frozen peas for a pop of green, delicate zucchini, or tender yellow squash towards the end of the cooking process, specifically with about 15 minutes remaining.
• Lemongrass Alternatives: If you find yourself unable to locate convenient grated lemongrass paste in a tube, there’s absolutely no need to worry! You can very easily use a fresh stick of lemongrass instead. Simply bruise the stick gently with the back of a knife or a rolling pin to help release its fragrant oils, then add it to the soup in step 2 along with the other broth ingredients. Just remember to remove the whole stick before serving (in step 4) for the best eating experience.
• Quinoa Choices: The beauty of this chicken quinoa soup is that any type of quinoa will work beautifully. Whether you have hearty red quinoa, visually appealing multi-colored quinoa, or classic white quinoa on hand, all varieties will contribute their unique texture, distinct flavor profile, and excellent nutritional benefits to the finished dish.
• Bean Swaps: If great northern beans aren’t your preference or simply aren’t available, consider swapping in other complementary legumes. Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) offer a slightly nuttier flavor and a firmer texture, while creamy navy beans provide a smoother consistency. Both are excellent choices for adding more protein and fiber.
• Adjusting Spice Level: The amount of hot sauce is entirely up to your personal preference. If you prefer more heat and a bolder kick, feel free to add another tablespoon or a pinch of red pepper flakes. For a milder, gentler soup, simply omit the hot sauce entirely.
• Herbal Boost: Experiment with other fresh herbs to personalize the flavor. Fresh thyme or oregano can be excellent substitutes or additions if you don’t have rosemary. For an extra boost of greens and nutrients, stir in a handful of fresh spinach or chopped kale during the last few minutes of cooking until just wilted.

Storage Solutions for Your Chicken Quinoa Soup

Like all our favorite comforting soup recipes, this chicken quinoa soup is incredibly delicious as leftovers and makes a thoughtful, healthy meal to share with a friend or family member. To store it properly, simply allow the soup to cool completely to room temperature before portioning. Then, transfer it into clean, airtight containers and refrigerate for up to 5 days. You’ll often find that the flavors tend to meld and deepen overnight, often making it even more delicious and complex the next day!

Effortless Freezing: How to Preserve Your Chicken Quinoa Soup

We absolutely love keeping a few convenient servings of soup (including this delightful chicken quinoa soup!) in the freezer at all times. It’s truly a thoughtful gift your future self will appreciate immensely, especially on long, busy workdays or when you’re short on time and unsure what to prepare for dinner. To freeze, ensure the soup has cooled completely to prevent condensation and ice crystal formation. Transfer it into sturdy freezer-safe containers or heavy-duty freezer bags, making sure to leave a little headspace for expansion, and freeze for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to enjoy, simply thaw the soup in the refrigerator overnight and reheat gently on the stovetop or in the microwave until piping hot. For more comprehensive advice, explore all our expert tips and tricks on how to freeze soup effectively, ensuring perfect results every time!

Serving Suggestions for a Perfect Meal

Elevate your chicken quinoa soup experience with these delightful and simple serving suggestions to create a truly perfect meal. Serve each warm, steaming bowl of chicken quinoa soup with a fresh lemon wedge on the side – a squeeze of citrus brightens all the flavors. Add a generous sprinkle of bright green, freshly chopped parsley for a pop of color and herbaceous freshness. Pair it with a hearty hunk of crusty bread or a warm roll for dipping, perfect for soaking up every last drop of the savory broth. This soup truly warms you from the inside out and is a delicious, nourishing meal to enjoy all year round. For a complete and balanced meal, consider pairing it with a light, crisp side salad.

Wholesome Chicken Quinoa Soup Recipe

Wholesome chicken quinoa soup is naturally gluten-free, packed with protein, and incredibly flavorful. Make a batch of this soup to enjoy all week long!

By: Lee Funke

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 40 mins

Total Time: 1 hr

Servings: 8

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Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
• 2 teaspoons fresh grated lemongrass (paste or fresh stick, see notes)
• 3 large carrots, sliced and halved (~2 heaping cups)
• 3 large celery stalks, sliced (~2 heaping cups)
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 tablespoon Frank’s Hot Sauce (optional, for a subtle kick)
• 1 small bundle of rosemary (4-5 sprigs tied together)*
• 15 oz. great northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 3 bay leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)
• 1 medium lemon, juiced
• Fresh parsley, for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Once the olive oil is shimmering and fragrant, add in the minced garlic, fresh grated ginger, lemongrass, sliced carrots, sliced celery, and finely diced onion. Sauté these aromatic vegetables for about 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions become translucent and the vegetables begin to soften.

2. 

   Next, pour in the chicken broth. Add the uncooked quinoa, hot sauce (if using), the bundle of rosemary, drained and rinsed great northern beans, boneless skinless chicken breast, and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper. Stir all the ingredients together to combine, then bring the mixture to a rolling boil over medium-high heat.

3. Once the soup reaches a vigorous boil, reduce the heat to low, cover the pot with a lid, and let it simmer gently for 30 minutes. This allows the quinoa to cook through, the chicken to become tender, and all the flavors to deepen beautifully.

4. 

   After 30 minutes, carefully remove the rosemary bundle and discard it. Take out the cooked chicken breast and place it on a clean plate or cutting board. Using two forks, shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Return the shredded chicken back into the stockpot and stir well to incorporate it throughout the soup.

5. 

   Turn off the heat. Squeeze in the juice from one whole medium lemon and stir. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Ladle the warm soup into bowls and serve immediately, garnished with an extra lemon wedge and fresh parsley, if desired.

Tips & Notes

• Storage: To keep your leftovers fresh, transfer any cooled chicken quinoa soup to airtight containers and store it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
• Freezing Instructions: For longer preservation, allow the soup to cool completely before transferring it into freezer-safe containers or bags. It can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
• Lemongrass Tip: If using fresh lemongrass, gently bruise the stick with the back of a knife or a rolling pin before adding it to the soup (in step 2) to help release its essential oils and maximize flavor. Remember to remove the stick before serving (in step 4).
• Rosemary Bundle: To create a rosemary bundle, simply gather 4-5 sprigs of fresh rosemary and tie them together tightly with baker’s twine. This makes them easy to retrieve and remove from the soup once their flavor has been fully infused.
• Serving Variation: Enhance the nutritional value and texture by stirring in a handful of fresh spinach or kale during the last 5 minutes of simmering until just wilted.

Nutrition Information (Approximate per serving)

Calories: 354 kcal,
Carbohydrates: 33 g,
Protein: 33 g,
Fat: 7 g,
Fiber: 7 g,
Sugar: 5 g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should be used as an approximation.