20 Minute Black Bean Soup

2 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 t ground cumin
1 t chili powder
2 15.5-oz cans black beans, drained & rinsed
15-oz can diced tomatoes in juice
1 1/2 c vegetable broth
1 t salt
1 handful chopped cilantro
1/4 c feta cheese
chives or green onions, chopped (optional)

In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium. Add onion and garlic, and cook 6-8 minutes, until beginnning to brown. Stir in cumin and chili powder. Add black beans, diced tomatoes, vegetable broth, salt and cilantro. Bring to a boil, and allow to cook for 2 minutes. Transfer 1 c to a blender, and process until smooth. Stir back into soup. Remove from heat, and serve topped with feta and chives.

Source: Fresh 365

Beans and Greens Soup

This is a quick, simple, tasty and nutritious vegetarian Blendtec recipe.  Although I imagine a regular old food processor or blender would do the trick just fine as well.

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, minced (I usually do a little more)
2 C low-sodium vegetable broth, divided (I usually do a little more)
4 C kale, approx 6-8 leaves, ribs removed and roughly chopped
2 (15 oz) cans white beans, drained, rinsed and divided
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (a scant 1/2 tsp if you don't like things too spicy)
1/3 tsp ground cumin

Heat oil over medium-high heat in large saute pan.  Add onion and garlic and cook until tender, approx. 5 minutes.  Add 1 C broth and kale to pan and cover.  Cook until kale is wilted, approx. 5 minutes.  While kale is softening, add remaining broth, half of beans, crushed red pepper and cumin to blender.  (If you're using a Blendtec, select the "Batters" mode which blends at a crazy fast speed for about 15 seconds.)  Add bean blend and remaining whole beans to pan.  Simmer for approx. 5 minutes and serve.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Recipe can be found here.

Roasted Asparagus Soup with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Parmesan Croutons

A delicious recipe I found on the Food Network website.  I get lots of compliments on it every time I make it.

4 slices bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks, rinsed well and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Roasted asparagus, chopped, about 4 cups
1 baking potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
6 cups reduced-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 cup diced oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (opt.)
Grated pecorino romano on top (opt.)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

Arrange bread cubes on prepared baking sheet and spray with cooking spray.  Sprinkle cubes with parmesan cheese.  Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

While the croutons are baking, heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add leeks and garlic and cook for 2 minutes, or until soft.  Add bay leaves and thyme and cook for 1 minute, or until fragrant.  Add asparagus, potato and broth and bring to a simmer.  Reduce heat to medium, partially cover and simmer for 10 minutes, or until potato is fork tender.  Remove bay leaves, and using an immersion blender, or a regular blender working in batches, puree soup until smooth.  Ladle soup into bowls and top with sun-dried tomatoes and croutons.

My notes:
-Prepping the asparagus is the hard, time-consuming part.  Once that's done, the rest is fast and easy.  But who has 4 cups of roasted chopped asparagus on hand, I ask you?  I roast my asparagus with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  You can do this ahead of time and refrigerate it until you need it.
-I tried this recipe once when I didn't have fresh asparagus, so I used frozen asparagus and roasting that.  It took less time because I didn't scrape off scales.  I got fewer compliments on the soup.  I won't do it again.
-For the croutons, I nix the cooking spray and use olive oil instead.  Also, I use way more parmesan.  And I usually use yummy Pugliese or other bread, because the better the bread, the better the croutons.
-If you break the bay leaves in half, and crush the thyme with your fingers, you get more herbal essence.
-This recipe says it makes 4 servings.  That is true, if you are skimpy and no one dreams of having seconds.  Long story short, I would 1 1/2 times the recipe for 4 real servings.  But of course, if you're going to all this work and it's as delicious as I say it is, then you should just double or triple it and have leftovers.

The end.

Vegetarian Chili

Here, as requested, is the low-fat vegetarian chili I made recently, as well as I can recall.

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 med onion, diced

1 lg green bell pepper

4 small anaheim peppers

2 cans black beans

1 can red beans

1 can kidney beans

1 can tomato sauce

2 Tbsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 qt bottled tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

Using a 6 qt pot, saute onion in olive oil until translucent. Dice peppers and add to onions. When peppers are softened, add drained and rinsed beans, tomato sauce, chili powder, and garlic powder. Add bottled tomatoes, and turn up the heat until bubbly. Turn down and simmer for a while. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Notes:

I use Sherol's home bottled tomatoes. They are like crushed tomatoes and are very, very liquidy. So I didn't add any additional liquid. If you don't have bottled tomatoes, then use two cans of diced or crushed tomatoes and add liquid as necessary. I would use tomato juice, chicken broth, or water.

I also use peppers from Sherol's garden. They have been preserved by blackening the skin (propane torch or broiler oven) on all sides, then put in a plastic bag while hot to sweat off the skins. Remove the skins, roll individually in saran wrap, and freeze. If you want the nice smokiness that this adds, you can blacken and skin your peppers before adding them to your chili. If you don't want to go to all that effort, then try a little liquid smoke. Or use store-bought canned green chilies. A nice way to add smokey flavor and some heat is to use a canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced.

Chunky Tomato Soup

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
4 cups chicken broth
2 - 8 oz. cans tomato sauce
1 - 29 oz. can diced tomatoes w/juice
1 tsp. hot sauce (Texas Pete?)
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp. dried dill
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. chili powder (I didn't use this--didn't want it to taste like chili)
2 tsp. dried basil

Garnish (I only had stuff for the croutons on hand)

1/2 cup croutons (many more needed)
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup sour cream
6 slices bacon

Melt 4T butter - whisk in flour - cook over low heat til thick, 3 min. or so. In separate skillet, melt rest of butter, saute onion for 5 min. or so; add garlic at the end until it blooms. (I think that means until you can smell it. You have to watch it because garlic burns fast.) (Also, I doubled this recipe and had to add some olive oil to the onions after a few minutes. I think it added good flavor to the soup and I will always add the uncalled-for olive oil in the future.) Add onions to flour mixture. Whisk well. Add chicken broth and stir frequently until thickened. Add rest of ingredients and stir well. Gently heat for 30 min. or so to blend flavors. Garnish.

Now, the recipe SAYS it will serve 8 to 10, but I have my doubts about that. I doubled it. It looked like maybe a gallon in my pickle pot. (Which has a warped bottom and probably no one will fight over it when I am gone. I remember when I bought it we only had Shelley and it looked like the HUGEST pot in the world. So I'll probably keep using it because of the memories. I actually did buy it to make pickles. Yummm. I love mustard pickles but haven't made any for umpteen years.

I think this soup recipe tastes very much like the tomato soup they have at the Corner Bakery Cafe at Fashion Place. I had it there twice. The first time they put the croutons in a separate dish when they brought it to me. The second time they put the croutons in the soup and then brought it to me; by the time I finished, many of the croutons had gotten soft and I would serve it with croutons on the side. I guess sometimes you might want the croutons to soften, but not in this dish.

Oh, by the way, I forgot to add the hot sauce and that was probably a mistake. I didn't have any Texas Pete's and didn't know if the tabasco sauce in my fridge would be a poor substitution. Then I forgot about it. I wonder if some red pepper flakes would be good?