Do you ever see a whole Mexican or Central American papaya in the store and think, “What a bargain!” But then your next thought is: “How will I ever use that giant piece of fruit?” I thought exactly that. Then I made papaya soup. Wow! What was I waiting for?  I’m making this again soon.

Papaya Soup – In a Hurry

The flavor of this soup is just incredible. This recipe can easily be made vegetarian-style by not including the canned chicken or the chicken broth; use vegetable broth and firm tofu chunks. If you don’t have the wheat berries in the freezer, it will take about an hour or 1¼ hours to cook the wheat berries. But if you do this is a fairly quick recipe to prepare.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons garlic, minced

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 cups purple onion, sliced

7 ½ cups chicken broth, low sodium

2- 12.5 ounce cans chicken breast packed in water, including liquid

6 cups Papaya chunks (about 1/2 large Mexican papaya)

2 cups spinach leaves, coarsely chopped

2 cups cooked wheat berries

Directions:

Cook wheat berries, if you don’t have them in the freezer; see recipe below.  Put garlic, curry, ginger in soup pot with oil; stir and heat for a minute.  Add the onions; continue stirring and heating for a couple more minutes, until the onions are tender. Add the broth, chicken chunks and liquid, and papaya; then cook until the papaya is fork tender, about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and wheat berries; cook until spinach is wilted and wheat berries are warm, about a minute. Serve

Wheat berries

1 cup wheat berries

3 ½ - 4 cups water

Directions:  simmer for 60 to 75 minutes, until tender.  Double or triple the recipe and store the extra in the freezer – then you’re ready for then next recipe.

The large papaya is not really pretty - lots of scars.

Cut the soft papaya open.

Remove the seeds.

Cut into bite-sized chunks - half of this papaya was left for another recipe.

Clean spinach.

Coarsly chop the spinach.

Slice the onions.

Gather the ingredients.

Put the seasonings in the oil.

Add the onions.

Add the broth.

Add the chicken.

Add the papaya.

Add the wheat berries.

Add the spinach.

Stir until the wheat berries are warm and the spinach in wilted.

Serve your flavorful soup.