Detox Chicken Lemon Quinoa Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsps butter
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 celery stalks, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup quinoa, uncooked
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 4 cups chicken bone broth
• 1 cup water or as needed
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp rosemary crushed
• 2 whole cloves
• 2 cups packed baby spinach leaves
• Juice of 2 lemons 
• Grated Parmesan Cheese (optional but recommended)

Instructions:

1. Pat your chicken breasts dry and season with salt and pepper. Then heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook chicken until 90% done. This should take about 5 minutes on each side. * It helps to cut the breasts into tenderloins first for quicker cooking. Remove from pot and set aside to rest.
2. Melt butter over medium heat, then add onions, carrots, and celery. Let cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and cook for another minute.
3. Add the dry quinoa to the pot and stir for 1-2 minutes to build a toasty flavor. Now add the stock, bone broth, salt, pepper, bay leaf, cloves, thyme, and rosemary.
4. Bring soup to a simmer for about 15 minutes until the quinoa is fully cooked. While the quinoa is cooking shred the chicken and add to the pot to finish cooking. This will also add good flavor.
5. At this point, the soup might be pretty thick so add the water as needed.
6. Add spinach and simmer for several minutes until the spinach leaves have wilted and the chicken is cooked through. Remove bay leaf, cloves and stir in lemon juice.
7. Serve with grated parm and chopped parsley!