This time of the year can be difficult for college students. The weather is getting colder (which I love, but not everyone does), finals are right around the corner, and assignments are due practically every day. It’s also sick season, which I learned the hard way. About two weeks ago, I got super sick, fell behind on an assignment, and have been trying to catch up on everything since. As I’ve been trying to catch up, all of my new assignments and projects have been building up, so there’s just a massive wave of stress about to crash over me.
Fortunately, I have discovered that cooking is a very good stress reliever for me. I often put homework and projects to the side just to cook for an hour. Trying new recipes, working on old ones, and making family dishes all help with my stress. One of my favorite types of recipes to make are copycat recipes for foods I love. I used to order so much Chinese takeout that in order to save some money I absolutely had to learn how to make some of the dishes myself. Similarly, I’ve learned that the foods I love often taste better when I make them for myself. One of those dishes is the Chicken and Gnocchi soup at Olive Garden.
When I was younger, my mom would take my brother and me to Olive Garden for lunch sometimes, usually after we had gone to see our dad at work. My mom and I would get the Chicken and Gnocchi, and my brother would get a little pizza off the children’s menu. I used to crave this soup, practically begging my mom to take me to get some anytime we had a free afternoon. Eventually, my dad scoured the internet to find a copycat recipe, and we learned to make it at home.
The process always looked long and complicated, and I assumed you had to have hours free to make this soup. However, once I moved into the dorms, I found a recipe that works well for me, and I’ve been making it ever since. I make this soup when I’m sad, when it’s cold, when I’m trying to prove to my boyfriend that I make it better than Olive Garden does, and when I’m trying to treat my friends. There is never not a reason to make this soup. Even for those who are lactose-intolerant, dairy-free half-and-half exists! It completely blew my mind to find that out, but it’s a lifesaver for sure.
Gnocchi is pretty easy to find (as long as you’re not looking at the tiny Target on Tennessee Street), and everything else can be found in most grocery stores.
The first recipe I ever looked up was “Creamy Chicken Gnocchi Soup (Olive Garden Copycat)” by Alyssa Rivers on a website called The Recipe Critic, and it’s the same recipe I’ve used even years later. As the recipe states:
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 cup onion, diced, ½ cup celery, diced, 2 garlic cloves, minced, ¼ cup all-purpose flour, 2 cups half-and-half, 1 14-ounce can chicken broth, 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, 1 cup shredded carrots, 1 cup fresh spinach leaves, 1 cup shredded chicken, 1 16-ounce package of gnocchi, and however much salt and pepper you want.
I always use more garlic, half-and-half, chicken broth, and spinach than the recipe calls for. I like my food super garlicky, and I feel like two cloves don’t do much. I also like my soup super brothy, so I always add more of both soup bases to make sure I’m not thinning my soup too much. Spinach is just delicious and compliments the soup really well. I also never use celery because it’s so hard to justify buying a whole bag of it when I know I’m only going to use a few stalks for the soup and then literally never touch it again.
The instructions for the recipe are pretty simple. You start by melting the butter and oil in a pot, and sautéing the onion, garlic, and celery until they’re tender and fragrant. Then, the flour is added to create a roux, and the mixture is cooked for another minute. After that, the half-and-half and chicken broth are added and stirred until the soup starts to thicken. Once it thickens, everything else is added. The thyme, carrots, spinach, chicken, gnocchi, salt, and pepper are all mixed together and simmered for about five minutes or until the gnocchi is cooked and the soup is thick. And that’s it! The soup is done and ready to be eaten.
There’s nothing quite like a pot of this soup to cheer me up and make me feel good. I know I’m going to need a little extra support to push through the last couple of weeks of the semester, and I fully believe it’s this soup that’s going to get me through it. I fully plan to keep making it for the people in my life too and give them some of the love that comes from a home-cooked meal.
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