Recipe: Chicken, Spinach and Whole Wheat Tortellini Soup

Eat three servings of whole grains per day, half of the total grain serving recommendation, and cut back on sodium. Those are two messages nutrition experts are trumpeting constantly.

At grocery stores, more and more products that can help you meet those goals are appearing on store shelves.

In today's soup recipe, I used a new market find: whole wheat cheese tortellini. Finding whole wheat pastas that suit your taste will take some experimenting. Be sure to read the product ingredients to make sure you are getting whole grains. The grain in the product should be listed as whole, such as 100% whole wheat flour.

The Whole Grains Council introduced a 100 percent Whole Grain stamp several years ago that's on more than 3,000 products, according to www.wholegrainscouncil.org.

The stamp, which was created to help consumers easily tell if a product contains 100% whole grain, means the product offers 47 grams or more of whole grains per serving. If a product has the organization's Whole Grain stamp, it has 8 grams or more of whole grains per serving.

You can find the fresh tortellini in today's recipe in the refrigerated section of most stores. I used the Buitoni brand.

One cup of the cheese tortellini has 8 grams of fiber, an excellent amount by most nutrition standards. Each serving of this soup has just a bit more than half a cup of tortellini, which is plenty when coupled with the other ingredients.

To cut down on sodium, I used another market favorite: no-salt added diced canned tomatoes. The sodium amount can vary from brand to brand, but is considerably less than the regular tomatoes. I used a store brand that had 20 milligrams of sodium per half cup. Regular canned diced tomatoes can have 200 milligrams of sodium or more per half cup.

This soup is great for using leftover cooked chicken.

Chicken, Spinach and Whole Wheat Tortellini Soup

Makes 4 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup sliced celery

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional

4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 cups water

9 ounces fresh or frozen 100% whole wheat cheese tortellini

1 can (14 1/2 ounces) no-salt added diced tomatoes, with their liquid

8 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 egg

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and black pepper to taste

1. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and saute 3 minutes. Add the shredded chicken, crushed red pepper flakes if using, broth and water; bring to a boil. Add the tortellini and cook halfway, about 5 minutes for frozen pasta, less for fresh.

2. Add the tomatoes along with their liquid and reduce the heat to a simmer and cook just until the pasta is tender, about 4 minutes.

3. Stir in the spinach and heat through, about 1 minute. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg and Parmesan cheese and drizzle into the soup and cook, stirring, about 3 minutes more. Season with pepper and salt, if desired. Remove from heat and serve.

From and tested by Susan M. Selasky for the Free Press Test Kitchen.