Tomato Soup with Roasted Garlic and Seasonal Herbs

Tomato Soup with Roasted Garlic and Seasonal Herbs
Contributed by Candice

This is delicious. The cayenne pepper gives it the perfect kick. I will admit that I added a tiny bit of cream to the finished product. I just couldn't resist because I had it sitting in my fridge and I knew it would be so yummy in the soup.

1/2 large onion
1 rib celery
1 14.5-ounce can Muir Glen Fire-Roasted diced tomatoes*
1 14.5-ounce can Muir Glen Fire-Roasted crushed tomatoes*
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon rosemary
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (or to taste)
4 cloves roasted garlic
1 tablespoon minced parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1/2-1 teaspoon agave nectar or sugar (optional)
4 tablespoons plain soy yogurt (optional, but good)

Sauté the onion and celery in a medium non-stick saucepan (sprayed with olive oil, if you like). When the onion is translucent, add the tomatoes, broth, oregano, rosemary, and cayenne. Simmer on very low heat for 10 minutes.

Transfer half of the soup to the blender, add the roasted garlic, and puree until fairly smooth. If you’d like a chunky soup, add the blended half back to the pot. For a smoother soup, blend the rest of the soup and return it to the pot. Add the parsley and salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for about 10 minutes to allow the flavors to blend. Taste the soup, and if it is too acidic, add a little agave nectar or sugar, just enough to take the edge off. Ladle into 4 bowls, and stir a tablespoon of soy yogurt into each. Serve with croûtons, if desired.

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Chicken Taco Soup

Chicken Taco Soup
Contributed by Candice

This is my favorite dinner. It's pretty healthy, it's easy, and I think it is delicious. And I love eating it again the next day. • 1-2 chicken breasts, chopped
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 cup chopped onions
• ½ tsp. cumin
• 6 cups water
• 1 ½ Tbs. chicken base
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• ½ tsp. chili powder
• 1 Tbs. lemon juice
• 2 cups fresh chunky salsa (I usually make this myself by cutting up fresh tomatoes, onions, and cilantro and tossing with lemon juice and salt)
Directions:
Saute chicken, garlic, and onion in oil. Add cumin and mix well. Add water, chicken base, chili powder, lemon juice, salsa, rice and beans. Bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until rice is done. Add frozen corn.
Garnish with chopped avocado, shredded cheese, tortilla chips, cilantro and lime.

Sweet Potato, Carrot, Apple, Red Lentil Soup

Oh my gosh, I loved this soup!! You have to try it. Perfect for fall/winter. And healthy - just don't add all the butter, or use olive oil instead. Even with the butter it's still really healthy. Changes: I thought recipe said THREE sweet potatoes and TWO carrots, so I did that. I ended up loving all the sweet potatoes in it though. Didn't have any apples, so that was omitted. Didn't have chili powder, so that was omitted. Used smoked paprika instead of regular - YUM. Used water with chicken bouillon instead of vegetable broth. Added some chopped sauteed chicken so Stephen would feel like it was a complete meal :) And finally, I did not puree it. I put a little in the blender to try it and didn't like the texture. I prefer chunks.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup red lentils
• 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• plain yogurt

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Place the chopped sweet potatoes, carrots, apple, and onion in the pot. Stir and cook the apples and vegetables until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir the lentils, ginger, ground black pepper, salt, cumin, chili powder, paprika, and vegetable broth into the pot with the apple and vegetable mixture. Bring the soup to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the lentils and vegetables are soft, about 30 minutes.
3. Working in batches, pour the soup into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway full. Hold down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Puree in batches until smooth and pour into a clean pot. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup right in the cooking pot.
4. Return the pureed soup to the cooking pot. Bring back to a simmer over medium-high heat, about 10 minutes. Add water as needed to thin the soup to your preferred consistency. Serve with yogurt for garnish.

Footnotes

• Cook's Note
• This soup is also great served with crumbled feta cheese instead of yogurt as garnish.
  
  
  Nutritional Information

  Sweet Potato, Carrot, Apple, and Red Lentil Soup

  Servings Per Recipe: 6

  Amount Per Serving

  Calories: 322

  • Total Fat: 9g
  • Cholesterol: 22mg
  • Sodium: 876mg
  • Total Carbs: 52.9g
  • Dietary Fiber: 9.5g
  • Protein: 9g

Split Pea Soup

I make this recipe all the time. Split pea soup has a bad reputation for some reason, but honestly this soup is one of Stephen and I's favorite meals. Stephen begs me to make it for him when I haven't for a while, I kid you not. It"s SO good for you, SO cheap, SO easy to throw together and SOO good. I've looked at lots of different recipes for it and kind of combined them to come up with this recipe. But I change it up all the time, putting different amounts of everything, and it always turns out great.

I'm counting calories right now so I measured everything out this last time I cooked it, totaled up the calories, and divided by the amount of cups it makes. If you follow this recipe exactly, it's 192 calories per cup -- really filling for not that many calories!

This makes A LOT of soup - almost 15 cups of soup - so beware. We like to make it and eat it for lunch for a few days. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

12 cups water (use more or less depending on whether or like thick or thin pea soup)
8 chicken bouillon cubes
3 cups dry split peas
3 cups chopped ham
ham bone (I don't always have one to throw in. Works fine without it)
2 cups chopped carrots
1 1/4 cup chopped celery
1 1/2 cups onion
Dried thyme to taste
3 bay leaves
Crushed black peppercorns (not necessary if you don't have these on hand but they are SO good!)

Just throw everything into a big pot, bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer until the peas are a consistency you like. I like it when the peas are totally mushy - takes about an hour I think.

Serve with homemade wheat bread. Yummmm!

Black Bean Soup

My sister-in-law gave me this recipe and it was so yummy. I realized after I made it and we ate it that I didn't add the vegetable broth. I thought it was a little thick, so I just added some water to thin it and it was still really good. This is a fast, easy, and healthy recipe.

2 15 oz cans black beans drained and rinsed
11\2 C vegetable broth (1 can swanson)
1 C pace picante
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
Sour cream
green onions.
Combine beans, broth, salsa,chili powder and cumin and blend in food
processor. Heat over medium heat. Add dollup of sour cream and green
onions on top.