No Chicken Noodle Soup

I made this soup for my cross country team to eat for lunch before their meet later that afternoon. It is great for getting in your carbs and protein at the same time. For this recipe, I used chicken-style seitan which I shredded and diced up to look like real chicken.

INGREDIENTS
2-3 tbsp. olive oil
3 carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
3 stalks celery
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 package chicken-style seitan, shredded and/or roughly chopped (or any other imitation chicken you prefer)
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. fresh tarragon leaves, chopped
2 tsp. fresh parsley leaves, chopped
2 quarts (2 boxes) Imagine No Chicken Broth
8 oz. dried pasta (see note below)

METHOD:
1. Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium high heat. Add the carrots, celery, and onion and saute until soften (about 5 minutes). Add the garlic and seitan and cook for two more minutes. Keep stirring the ingredients so that the garlic doesn't brown and stick.

2. Add the salt, pepper, and herbs. Cook for an additional minute.

3. Add the 2 boxes of broth and bring to a boil.

4. Turn down the heat and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Add in the noodles and serve when the noodles are cooked to desire.


NOTE:
For the pasta in the picture, I have found wavy noodles that look like egg noodles without the egg at my local co-op store. You can also use any desired pasta such as alphabets or stars for kids, regular spaghetti noodles broken into smaller pieces, or No Yolk Egg Noodles.

This soup will keep in the refrigerator for about a week. When you heat up the leftovers, make sure you add more water because the noodles soak up a lot of the broth. You will also need to add more salt to taste after reheating.