SOUP-A-THON 2012: Cheesy Spinach & Tomato Soup

This took me under 30 minutes to make and tastes friggin' awesome.

Ingrdients:
1/2 a pound of fresh spinach
1 tomato, diced
2 cups of bullion (I used Knorr's Vegetarian Vegetable)
1/4 of a red onion, diced
3 oz finely shredded cheddar
1 cup finely shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup of fat free milk
Garlic, pepper, thyme
1-3 tablespoons of lemon juice (to taste)

Get your broth/bullion in a medium pot, on medium-low on a burner so it will be ready to go.
Wash and chop your spinach into smallish pieces. Also dice your onion.
Add spinach and onion to pot.
Add cheese to pot, stirring quite a bit so it doesn't glob up.
Add lemon juice to pot.
Add spices.
Add milk to pot, again stirring quite a bit.

Let simmer until cheese is all melted in. Your broth should be a nice buttery yellow color.

Add your diced tomato at the end.  Mix in.

Serve!

Makes about 4 servings and each serving is 195 calories. Booyah!

SOUP-A-THON 2012: Avocado and Tomato Soup

How have I never made avocado soup before this day? I don't know what my problem is.

Serves 1-2.

Ingredients:
1 avocado
2 cups of broth (I used Knorr's Vegetarian Vegetable bullion)
1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice
half a long hot pepper (or 1 jalapeno, or whatever you feel is right), chopped finely
1 tomato, diced
1/3 of a medium red onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
Black pepper & garlic powder and/or any other spices you may wish to use
Olive oil

Coat the bottom of a medium pot in olive oil.  Chop your garlic finely and start it simmering. The goal is to let it get just a little brown, then turn the heat down or remove it from heat so it doesn't burn.

Add your hot pepper and onions. Let them cook a little bit. If you don't want this spicey nix the pepper. The more the hot pepper simmers in the oil the hotter it will be, so allow that to guide when you add it and how long you let the simmering go.  Add your spices in here.

Remove from heat when you feel your onions and pepper are cooked enough (I like my onions a little raw but I realize not everybody does).

Peel your avocado and remove the pit, and put the avocado into a blender with your lemon juice and broth. Note: if you just made the broth, you should wait until it is warm not hot.  Blend until these things are nicely pureed, then pour this mixture into your pot with the onions, pepper, garlic and oil.  Also, add your chopped tomato.

While stirring, heat until hot but don't let the soup boil. Apparently avocado can separate and get not good.  So don't do that.  Just heat until it is eating temperature.

Serve!

Possible awesome garnishes: cilantro, sour cream, some kind of nice latin american cheese...

Soul-chinnis with Roasted Red Pepper Dipping Sauce

This entire recipe is under 200 calories, really simple and quick, and tastes awesome.  The zuchinnis are kind of hot and hearty and the dipping sauce has this very nice cooling effect because of the red pepper and cilantro. Serve it as an appetizer for 2-4 people or do what I did and eat the whole thing for dinner! (I threw in a side salad and an english muffin to make it a whole meal.)

Roasted Red Pepper Dipping Sauce:

There used to be this amazing place in Brooklyn called Aunt Suzy's, and they served every table bread and butter with this amazing red pepper dipping sauce. They closed last year and I have been mourning that amazing sauce ever since.  Anyway, this sauce isn't exactly the same but it does have that nice roasted red pepper zing.

Ingredients

1 red pepper

1 small tomato

a small bunch of cilantro

splash of shiraz

Roasting a Red Pepper:

Roasting a red pepper is really easy but takes time in the oven, so start this about an hour before you plan to actually cook everything else. You can brush the pepper with oil but I usually don't (why add calories?) and I'm still quite happy with how it comes out. Basically, preheat your oven to about 450-500 degrees, stick your pepper on some foil or a baking sheet, stick it in there and walk away. Check periodically. When a spot turns black, turn it. When the whole thing is mostly black, take it out (carefully!), put it in a bowl and cover the bowl with saran wrap. Leave it for 10-20 minutes. Then you will be able to easily peel off the skin and get the seed/stem out when it is cool enough to touch.

Once your red pepper is roasted, throw it, and a tomato (chop the tomato up into big pieces), and your cilantro, and your shiraz, into a blender. Then blend until it's a good consistency. You're done.

Soul-chinnis:

Ingredients

1 large zuchinni

1 tsp whipped butter

1 tsp Jamaican soul seasoning

dash pepper, dash thyme, dash paprika

Peel & julienne your zuchinni. Put a wok* on medium-high heat and melt the butter in it, spreading it around to cover as much surface area as possible. Add your zuchinnis, then your spices, then mix around vigorously with a spatula. 

This does not take long to cook. When the skinniest zuchinnis start getting floppy and translucent, you're done.

And there you have it!

*If you don't have a wok, I'm sad for you. You can use a frying pan. Or go to ikea and buy a wok for $20.

SOUP-A-THON 2012: Tea & (Fake) Sausage Soup

Ingredients:
Gimme Lean Ground Sausage - 1/4 of a tube
3 tea bags
3 cups water 
1 red potato, diced
6-8 baby carrots, chopped
1/4 of a large onion, diced
Ground sage - generous dash
Onion powder - generous dash
Black pepper - to taste
3 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons Lemon Juice
1 tsp Soy Sauce
1 extra large cube Knorr Vegetarian Vegetable Bouillon

Here is my confession: This was an experimental soup-a-thon soup and I thought at first that I had failed.  I originally made this without the last three ingredients, poured myself a small cup to taste, and found the broth pretty underwhelming. Then I went into Emergency Flavor Enhancement Mode and added the lemon juice, soy sauce, and bullion cube and let it simmer for a while and ... viola! it was really tasty!

So, here is how I would make this if I were going to make it properly from the start:

Start off hot water with three tea bags in a medium pot. What I did here was tie the tea bags to the pot handle. If this makes you nervous or you don't have tea bags with strings, you could just make 3 cups of tea first.
Chop your garlic, onions, potato, and carrots and add them in as they're chopped. They should be bite sized or smaller. Add your bullion cube too.
Make your sausage into bite sized chunks or balls and add that right to the pot.
Now, add your spices and also your lemon juice and soy sauce.
Let simmer for quite a while until your sausage is cooked and everything has blended. 20 minutes should be enough. Longer is OK too.

Serve!
If you're not vegan and feeling it, I bet some grated romano cheese would be awesome on this.

Serves 2 in big bowls or 4 people as a side.


Nutrition information: 
Total: 303 calories
Per serving if serving 2: 151.5 calories
Based on MyFitnessPal.com's nutrition calculator.

(Fake) Sausage and Mushroom Pasta

Ingredients: 

Tri-Color Rotini - 3 oz dry (1/3 of a 12 oz package)
Whole Wheat Rotini - 2 oz dry (it would be like 1/8 of a 16 oz package)
Gimme Lean Fake Ground Sausage  - 1/4 of a tube
Garlic - 2-4 cloves
Onion - a few slices, diced (optional)
White button mushrooms - 3-4
White Wine - 1/4 cup
Olive Oil - 1 tablespoon
Breakstone's Whipped Unsalted Butter - 1 tablespoon
Biazzo - Whole Milk Mozzarella Cheese - 4 oz
Sage (to taste)
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
Cayenne pepper (to taste, optional)

Cook your pasta according to package instructions or your whims.

Chop up your garlic and start it off in the butter and olive oil. Break/roll your fake sausage into small bite size bits and add them. Here you can add your chopped onion if you choose, or you can wait and add it raw at the end, which is my preference. Add some cayenne pepper here if you want this spicy.  And add your chopped mushrooms too.
When the sausage has browned, add the white wine, sage, salt and pepper and any other spices that appeal to you. Cover and let simmer until mushrooms and sausage are fully cooked.

Toss with pasta and serve!

Total Calories: 1202
Calories per serving: 401
(Calculated with the MyFitnessPal.com recipe calculator)

Apple-Cheddar-Potato-Parsnip Soup

I realize my soup names are not always the most creative, but no one can accuse them of being inaccurate!

I made a huge batch of this.  Halve or quarter this recipe at will, but as far as spices go it should always be to taste, so don't get too hung up on math!

Serves: 6 - 8 (around a 12 oz serving)

Ingredients:
Shredded cheddar - 8 oz
Red Potatoes - 5 medium
Parsnips - 2 medium
Gala apple - 3 medium
Lemon Juice - 2-3 table spoons
Knorr Vegetarian Vegetable Bullion - 2 extra large cubes
Water - 4-5 cups (less for thicker soup, more for thinner soup or unexpected company!)
Dried Sage - to taste
Nutmeg - a dash
Salt - a teaspoon or so, to taste

Peel your parsnips. Chop your potatoes and parsnips up into smallish pieces and cook in boiling, salted water until soft (10-20 minutes).  In the meantime, get 2 cups of water into a large pot with both bullion cubes and your spices. Place on lowish heat and cover.

Chop up your apples into smallish pieces.

Are your potatoes and parsnips ready? Good. Drain them.

Now you'll want to blend your potatoes, parsnips, apples and remaining water in a blender or food processor. You might have to do this in several batches! Use enough water to allow your blender/food processor to work without difficulty but not so much that you really thin out the soup. 2-3 cups total should be more than enough.

Add your blended potato-parsnip-apple goodness to your broth. It should be quite thick and you might have to guide it out with a spatula or wooden spoon. Mix well.

Add shredded cheddar, stirring as you do.

Stir occasionally and let this soup simmer for a while -- long enough so the cheese melts in. (For a rule of thumb try 10-15 minutes at least; more is always OK).

Then... serve!

Here are approximate nutrition facts, courtesy of the myfitnesspal.com recipe calculator. Serving size is around 12 ounces.

SOUP-A-THON 2012

What's that you say? Soup-a-thon?

It's kind of like NaNoWriMo but it's for soup.  One soup per week, every week until my freezer is full or I just flake out on it too much to recover from. 

Pictured in that photo, by the way, is black bean soup and tomato-cheddar-pepper soup side by side in the same bowl. No, it is not Photoshopped, just carefully ladled. People call out Photoshop way too often these days. Sometimes stuff just really does look cool!  But I digress.

SOUP-A-THON 2012

The -thon is upon us. Every week I will post a new soup experience with photos and a recipe. I'm making big huge amounts so that I can freeze some and give some to friends and generally spread the yummy winter soup love. Halving or quartering these recipes should be fine, but I would advise you to use spice and bullion to taste, rather than doing math on my already guestimated amounts.

WEEK ONE: Apple-cheddar-potato-parsnip
WEEK TWO: Tea & Fake Sausage
WEEK THREE: Avocado & Tomato
WEEK FOUR: Cheesy Spinach & Tomato
WEEK FIVE: Broccoli Cheese
WEEK SIX: Vegetarian Sausage and Peppers