Potato Garlic Halftime Soup

If, like me, you are ever watching a football game and then see a commercial for some sort of delicious creamy soup and you're like OH NO how can I eat something like that right now...
This soup is for you. Easy to prepare during halftime/commercial breaks.

Ingredients:
3-5 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons whipped butter
1/2 sprig of rosemary if available*
a few shakes of dried thyme
1 cup broth
1 cup milk
1 cup potato flakes (this makes it pretty thick, use less or more depending on desired thickness)
2 oz grated cheddar cheese
1 tsp lemon juice

*dried stuff is OK too; a sprig is just nicer because then you can pull it out after and not be left with branchy stuff in your soup.

Serves 1-2 people.

Chop garlic and start it simmering in butter with the rosemary sprig on very low heat. This way you can leave it until the next commercial.
On the next commercial, add your broth (or bullion and water if that's your fancy.)
On the following commercial, add flakes and then milk. Stir well. Adjust your thickness here with your flake to milk ratio if desired. Then add the grated cheese.
Let simmer, partially covered, until the next commercial break.
Add lemon juice & stir well/quickly so it doesn't interact badly with the milk.
Serve!

Vegetarian Sausuage and Peppers Soup

This is really hearty, really filling, really good for you.

Serves two, or double it for more. I only had a little fake sausage left and so made a small amount.

Ingredients:

Gimme Lean Ground Sausage - 1/4 tube

2 Green Peppers, roasted

1 roma tomato

1/3 of a large spanish onion, diced

1 teaspoon olive oil

.5 tablespoon whipped butter

5 cloves garlic

Knorr Vegetarian Vegetable Bouillon

1-2 cups water

Cayenne pepper (optional)

First you will roast your peppers. Poke some holes/slits in with a knife so there is no risk of explodey peppers. Stick them in the oven on about 425 on a baking sheet or foil. Turn them every 10 minutes or so. When they are mostly black and splotchy (and/or start to look dangerously collapsey) take them out, and put them in a bowl covered with Saran wrap for 10 minutes or so. This lets the skin detach a little better. When cool enough you can peel them and remove the stem.

One of these peppers is going into the blender. The other one, chop up into small pieces.

Start off some garlic in your butter and oil in a medium pot. Add in small pieces of the ground sausage bit by bit. Then add your diced onions. When your sausage starts to brown and the onion looks a little translucent, add your chopped roasted green pepper too. If you want this a little spicey add some cayenne pepper here, too.  Cover, let simmer. Keep this on low and stir occasionally so nothing gets burnt or sticky. 

Chop your tomato into big pieces and stick that in the blender with your first roasted pepper. Add a little water. Blend until soupy, a few chunks are OK.

Add your blended veggies, one cube of bullion, and the rest of your water to the pot. Let this simmer for 10-20 minutes (longer is fine) so the bullion cube dissolves and the flavors get all nice and mixy. 

Serve!

Friggin amazing on its own or with added mozzarella, romano cheese, croutons or garlic bread.  

Broccoli Cheese Soup

I have long had a love affair with broccoli cheese soup and interestingly never made it.

Years ago, a friend's dad earned my cook-y respect in a major way by serving me his homemade broccoli soup that he made in a crock pot with cream cheese, frozen broccoli and cream (or milk? I can't remember).

More recently I had to break up with Panera's broccoli cheese soup when I learned it was not vegetarian. (Yeah, I guess the fact that there was no little "V" should have tipped me off earlier but what can I say... I was a woman in love.)  It was a rough breakup.

Anyway, here's my recipe from the other night. It came out really tasty. I didn't have any onions in the house, but if I had I would have added those too.

Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic, sliced

1-2 tablespoons butter

1 cup water 

1 extra large knorr vegetarian vegetable bullion cube

1 cup milk

2 oz shredded cheddar.

8 oz whipped cream cheese

2 fresh broccoli heads, chopped up into very small pieces. You can get a little stem in there too.

Start off your garlic with your butter simmering in the pan. You want the garlic to get a little brown but not burnt. When that's accomplished, add your water and your bullion cube and stir. You can raise the heat. Add your broccoli too. Let your bullion do its bullion thing.

Now you're going to add your dairy stuff.

First add the cream cheese and STIR LIKE THE DICKENS. You want it to melt in. Stir a lot, keep the heat on the low side because if it boils it can separate (which doesn't really affect the flavor but looks pretty ugly).  When the cream cheese is incorporated fully into the soup, add your shredded cheddar and again, stir like the dickens until it is fully melted in. Add your cup of milk, still stirring.

When your milk, cheese and broth are well mixed and soup is hot enough to eat, it's done!

Serves 3-4.

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.