Chicken Fennel Lemon Rice Soup

Ingredients:
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
3 leeks, quartered and thinly sliced (white and very light green parts only!)
1 large bulb fennel, thinly sliced
1 carrot, diced
1 parsnip, diced
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 cup Meyer lemon juice
5 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon fennel pollen
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 cups diced cooked chicken breast*
2 cups cooked white rice*

Directions:
Place the vegetables, juice, stock and spices into a 4-quart slow cooker. Stir. Cook on low for up to 10 hours. 1-2 hours prior to serving, stir in the chicken and rice and continue to cook on low. Stir before serving.

*To save time (and money!) I used a very good rotisserie chicken from the store and rice leftover from Chinese take-out.

My thoughts:

I think I've eaten more soup this year than I ever have in my life. It could be that it seems like I had one cold or another for as what it seems like forever. It could also be that I've been doing a lot of recipe development for hire lately which (somewhat ironically) leaves me with less time to make dinner. I cheated a bit with this one and didn't roast the chicken myself (gasp!)and used Chinese takeout rice. But I assure you, the result was tasty. The fennel mellowed and the lemon juice added a bright, tart flavor which I thought was sort of spring-y. But maybe I just have spring on the brain lately!