Low Sodium Chicken Noodle Soup

As a part of a healthy diet, we try to keep sodium at a minimum. For this recipe, I added the Nutrition Facts next to each ingredient to aid in determining the level of sodium. Calories and sodium are the measures we use to determine if a food is "low sodium". If the mg of sodium is less than the calories per serving, we consider it low sodium. This homemade soup is low sodium by our definition, coming in at a total of 2806 calories and 1474 mg sodium for the entire pot.

1 large leek (38 cal, 305 mg)
3 celery stalks (30 cal, 153 mg)
3 carrots (75 cal, 124 mg)
4 tablespoons minced garlic (0 cal, 0 mg)
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled (9 cal, 1 mg)
3 tablespoons olive oil (357 cal, 0 mg)
1.5 pounds all natural boneless skinless chicken thighs (780 cal, 570 mg)
12 cups water (0 cal, 0 mg)
3 tablespoons Tone's No Salt/No MSG Italian seasoning blend (0 cal, 0 mg)
1 tablespoon black pepper (0 cal, 0 mg)
2 whole jalapeños (8 cal, 0 mg)
1 bay leaf (0 cal, 0 mg)
1 box whole what elbow macaroni (1470 cal, 0 mg)
1 cup chard (35 cal, 313 mg)
1/2 cup lettuce (4 cal, 8 mg)

1. Slice the leek, celery, and carrots and add to the pot. I am using my 6.5 quart Dutch oven.

2. Add the ginger, garlic, and olive oil.

3. Turn on heat and cook for a couple of minutes. Cooking these ingredients emits a fantastic aroma. It was good enough to wake my husband and have him wander into the kitchen to see what was cooking.

4. Add the remaining ingredients to the pot (chicken, water, seasoning, pepper, jalapeños, bay leaf, and macaroni). I used this much chicken because we had some leftover. A smaller amount would also work.

5. Boil gently until the chicken is cooked and the macaroni is soft.

6. Remove the chicken from the pot.

7. Take two forks and shred the chicken. Return it to the pot.

8. Slice the greens into 1/2 inch strips and add to the pot. I used a mixture of leaves from our Winter garden. Any combination or single green will do.

9. Cook for a couple of minutes until the greens are tender and serve.

This will be a very thick soup. Once we served a few bowls, I added another 8 cups of water. There was a lot of flavor, so adding the extra water didn't dilute it too much. It is just the thing to combat a stormy, rainy day.