Tortellini Spinach Pesto Soup

A light soup to fill you up on chilly nights. Every bite is packed with cheesy tortellini, carrots, celery, spinach, and mushrooms!

Of course I go to make some soup, not planning to post it on the blog, and it ends up being delicious and full of flavor. Not to mention it’s pitch black outside, so there goes the chance of good pictures with natural light. We all know how hard it is to shoot at night. This is just too good not to share!

Let’s start with my inspiration: about a year and a half ago, before I had any interest in real, nutrient-dense food (much has changed), my mom made a soup. A creamy tortellini spinach soup, to be exact. I was just starting to get into running, so I had just gotten home from a 5 mile run at the track. That was huge!  There was this smell… surely it couldn’t be the soup. Spinach? Chicken broth? Yuck! Nonetheless, I went over to the crockpot and my nostrils were filled with this heavenly smell.

I photographed food even before I blogged. 😉

I had a bowl… then another bowl…. then another. It was perfect. It made me want to start eating these weird foods. I never forgot about that soup and I’ve been wanting to make it since. When I asked if we could make it again, my mom didn’t know what recipe she used. It was off in the depths of Pinterest, thousands of pins ago.

So I decided to recreate it. Now, if you know me at all, you’d know that I didn’t plan it out at all. I started making it at 6 o’clock. I wanted to make a crockpot soup, but much to my dismay, mom told me you need at least 2-3 hours. I was mad. I was hungry now. Okay, the crockpot is out. What am I gonna do? You can’t make a soup in 20 minutes; it won’t have any flavor.

Yet I tried. I took a package of chicken broth and boiled it. I added some frozen spinach and carrots and mushrooms and onion and some spices. I simmered it and stirred. Then I added some frozen tortellini and stirred some more. Then I had the idea to add pesto. I know, we’re getting crazy. What happened to just tortellini and spinach soup? This is better anyway.

 

When I finally ladled a bowl, I was hooked. This soup is one of the best recipes I’ve ever created. Please remember the fact that I have not created many recipes 😉

We served it with a rosemary cheddar cornbread. No recipe for that because it was from a box! 😉

 It was just as good  if not better the next day. I just added a splash of water and nuked it for a few minutes!

Enjoy!