Chickenless-Chicken Noodle Soup (2024)

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You will never know this Chickenless-Chicken Noodle Soup doesn’t actually have chicken in it. It’s perfect for vegetarians. Make your vegetarian friends happy with this cozy soup.

Giving up eating meat meant that I would have to give up chicken soup.

Or so at least I thought.

Hang my head, I ate a lot of Chicken and Stars.

I know that has enough sodium for a week. 😀

Or possibly a month.

And I love it anyway.

But once I discovered Better than Bouillon (nope not an ad…I just love it) made a no chicken base (and no beef base too) lots of things opened up.

And I mean lots of things.

I am able to recreate so many recipes now because of it.

It’s probably just as dreadful for me as Chicken and Stars but so be it. 🙂

And yes, it does amazingly taste like chicken.

Then again…so many things taste like chicken. 😛

And so this Chickenless-Chicken Noodle Soup was born.

And I’m so glad it was.

I never realized how much I missed having chicken soup until I was able to recreated a no chicken version of it.

To this day this recipe one of the most searched for recipes on this site.

Like consistently top five year round.

So others are looking for it too.

And I’m more than happy to provide that recipe.

I’ve made this soup in many varieties.

Including not adding the fake chicken.

Honestly, it doesn’t need it.

And I actually prefer it without the chunks of the fake chicken.

But full disclosure the chicken chunks were my least favorite part of regular chicken noodle soup.

What can I say, I’m a carb girl through and through. 😀

But my husband likes to have the fake chicken in there, so I add it.

I have tried a variety of noodles for this soup.

All work, but I really like the wide noodles.

It is really is hard to tell this is not made with chicken.

I realize a lot of Vegetarians and Vegans make comments like that.

And there is some really bad Vegetarian and Vegan fake meats and cheese.

Really bad.

I have pretty much tried them all.

I will say that they have come a long way in the world of plant based protein.

But trust me on this…I’ve fed it to non-Vegetarians who didn’t realize it wasn’t chicken soup.

It’s not that I was trying to trick them.

I tend not to tell anyone that something doesn’t have meat (once I know they don’t have food allergies).

But I find if you pre-tell people something is vegetarian or vegan they going in looking for it not to taste right. I also don’t tell them if they don’t ask.

Example, I don’t wait for someone to say to me gee this soup is good…and then say HA! it has no meat.

I just simply respond by saying thanks.

P.S. The soup can be easily made Vegan by choosing the oil not ghee and choosing a different noodle.

P.S. It’s a great day to buymy cookbookHoly Sweet!

Want More Recipes? Try These:

Vegetarian Vegetable No-Beef Soup

Tomato Cheddar Soup

Vegetarian Avgolemono Soup

Spinach Mushroom Quiche

Vegetarian French Onion Soup

Roasted Broccoli Cheddar Quiche

Vegetarian Lasagna Stew

Ingredients

2 TBSP ghee or olive oil
1 large sweet onion, finely diced
3 large carrots, peeled and diced
3 large celery stalks, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 golden Yukon potatoes, cleaned and diced
8-10 cups no chicken broth (made with water and Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base)
1 ½ cups Gardein™ Meatless Chick'n Strips
8 oz. noodles of your choice (I used egg noodles)
1 TBSP parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In a stock pot add the ghee, onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes.
Cook the veggies over medium heat until the onions become translucent, about 5-6 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook another minute.
Add the chickenless stock and bring to a boil, once you have reached a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and let simmer for about 20 minutes.
Add the noodles and bring back to a boil. How long you boil again depends on the type of noodle using. Whatever the package says for cooking time.
Add the fake chicken and parsley and simmer until the soup is evenly warmed.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve warm.