Tag Archive: Soup

Healthy Pumpkin Lentil Soup

Yogurt and Lentils

This summer I spent very little time cooking and baking. For me Fall squashes and pumpkin spice make much more exciting recipes. When Stonyfield asked their Clean Plate Club bloggers to make a recipe using Bob’s Red Mill‘s lentils, I knew I wanted it to use pumpkin, too. 

I eat beans pretty much every day and it’s almost always the kind from a can. As much as I’d prefer cooking my own, it can take a long time and yield way too much beans for one person. These red lentils were perfect because they only took 15 minutes and you don’t have to cook the whole bag all at once.

I liked this soup a little chunky so I didn’t blend up the lentils. For a thick and creamy soup, you could continue blending until smooth. If you want to turn it into more of a meal than a side add a cup and a half of cooked quinoa at the end.

Healthy Pumpkin Lentil Soup

Healthy Pumpkin Lentil Soup

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 5-6 servings):

  • 1 cup uncooked Bob’s Red Mill red lentils
  • 2 cups vegetarian broth
  • 1 can pumpkin purée
  • 1/2 cup Stonyfield lowfat plain yogurt
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika

Method:

  1. Cook the Bob’s Red Mill red lentils according to directions on the package.
  2. In a food processor or blender, combine the rest of the ingredients and blend until emulsified.
  3. Add in the cooked lentils and pulse gently until fully mixed. For a smooth soup, continue blending until fully puréed.
  4. Pour the soup into a large pot and heat on top of the stove.
  5. Season with extra salt and pepper to taste. Finish with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt.

Fat-Free Sweet Potato Soup

Fat-Free Sweet Potato Soup

Normally I wouldn’t drop off the face of the earth for 3 weeks but moving has that effect. While my pots and pans are still in boxes, I thought I’d share this recipe I wrote for Life By Dailyburn.

Any trip to Panera will show you soup’s one of those healthy-not-so-healthy foods that always sounds like a good idea at the time. Meanwhile, you don’t need a fancy immersion blender to make your own at home; anyone with a food processor or high-end blender can healthify their favorite soups.

Sweet potato is a great base for a soup because it’s naturally fat-free and creamy. Instead of fake cheese and artificial ingredients this recipe celebrates vegetable broth and fresh vegetables to give it a healthy dose of flavor. It’s also a decent defense against the office cold going around with vitamin C and vitamin K.

Check out the full recipe on Daily Burn’s blog and let me know if you try it!

Hipsterfood’s Easy Lentil Soup

Hipsterfood’s Easy Lentil Soup

I always imagine soup as being one of those long, time-consuming foods to make. It definitely can be, but now I know it doesn’t have to be. I found this recipe on the blog, hipsterfood, and thought it looked too easy not to try. I’m also a sucker for anything with lentils in it.

Hipsterfood’s Easy Lentil Soup Yield

One thing that they don’t mention in the actual recipe is that you need a lot of water. I’d estimate that I added about 4 cups of water through the whole process and mine still came out thicker than the batch on their blog. I also left out the celery and added whatever herbs/spices I had on hand. A little paprika gave a nice smoky flavor to it all.

Hipsterfood’s Easy Lentil Soup Croutons

At the end I made “croutons” by chopping up some gluten-free bread, frying it in a little olive oil and seasoning them. Now I know I’ll never have to buy croutons again. It’s also terrific with melted cheese or sour cream on top.

What’s your favorite soup recipes? I’d love ideas for more to make.

Easy Chilled Watermelon Soup

Easy Chilled Watermelon Soup

Here’s another red and blue recipe to go along with that cake.

I really can’t take credit for the idea of this soup at all; it was one of those cases when you go to a restaurant and try something and think, “Hey, I can make that!” I would never have thought a sweet watermelon soup could be a good appetizer but the balance of herbs and a touch of sour watermelon make this soup a lot more than just sweet.

As soon as I bought a watermelon I cut up half and made this soup with a slight smile on my face realizing it was just as good as from the restaurant. With bright and vibrant colors, it seemed perfectly fit for this week. Unfortunately the one thing it’s missing is white, but I’m sure it’d be welcomed at any (very fancy) 4th of July party.

Easy Chilled Watermelon Soup Serving

Be careful not to put too much watermelon in your food processor or it will overflow and you’ll have watermelon juice all over your counters. Trust me; I know from experience. Taste the soup at every step and add more herbs depending on your personal preference.

Chilled Watermelon Soup

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 4 servings):

  • 1/2 large watermelon
  • 2 Tablespoons sugar
  • Juice from 1/2 lime(about 1 Tablespoon)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4-8 mint leaves, chopped finely
  • 4-8 basil leaves, chopped finely
  • Blueberries, raspberries, and herbs to garnish

Easy Chilled Watermelon Soup Collage

Method:

  1. Cut the watermelon away from the white pith into smaller chunks between the size of a golf ball and a baseball.
  2. In small batches, blend the watermelon chunks in a food processor until smooth. Keep in mind that as the watermelon blends it turns into a liquid and so will overflow easily.
  3. Pour the watermelon puree in a large bowl. Repeat until all the watermelon has been used up.
  4. Add the sugar, lime, salt, and chopped herbs into the soup. Mix well.
  5. Let the soup chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
  6. Ladle into dishes, garnish, and serve cold.

Easy Chilled Watermelon Soup Plated

Soup’s on.

10-Minute Chickenless, Noodleless Soup

10-minute-chickenless-noodleless-soup

After weeks of unseasonably warm weather, Winter is hitting and it’s hitting hard. It’s rained the past few days; and the temperature has dipped into the 30 and 40s. It’s no wonder I was craving chicken noodle soup recently.

I was thinking of just riding out the craving, since it’s not the easiest thing to satisfy for someone who’s vegetarian and gluten-free. Then I realized I had enough food lying around to make a decent meat-free, gluten-free soup that hit all the right notes.

10-minute-chickenless-noodleless-soup-broth

I loved how flavorful this was, especially for something that was so simple. It was exactly like any good soup I’ve ever had, with a deep and savory broth. The quinoa and tempeh make this totally satisfying, as well. If gluten’s not an issue, I bet the texture of seitan would work great in this soup, too, in place of the tempeh.

10-Minute Chickenless, Noodleless Soup

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 4 side servings or 2 entrée servings):

  • 2 cups precooked quinoa
  • 3/4 cup chopped kale, fresh or frozen
  • 3/4 cup peas, fresh or frozen
  • 1 block of tempeh, cubed
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 vegetarian bouillon cube
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt plus more to taste

10-minute-chickenless-noodleless-soup-bowl

Method:

  1. Combine all of the ingredients in a large pot
  2. Bring the water to a boil. Make sure to mix well enough that the bouillon cube dissolves completely into the broth.
  3. Once heated through, remove from the stove and serve hot.

10-minute-chickenless-noodleless-soup-tempeh

And then I ate this with 2 clementines because I’m paranoid about getting sick during finals period. Nobody sneeze on me, please.

The Elephant Walk In Boston

Today is a special day if you’re from Boston; it’s Patriot’s Day, also known as Marathon Monday. Growing up I always looked forward to having this one day off from school and watching the marathon coverage on every network station. Now that I don’t live in Boston, it makes me sad that I have to go to school and miss all that. But yesterday I was there with some excellent company and excellent food.

I met Matt and his family at The Elephant Walk on Beacon St. for a Sunday brunch. Matt is running the marathon today as his 8th or 9th marathon; he’s just that awesome. He also has a very cute baby who turned one yesterday(happy birthday, Holden!) so we just had to go out and eat grown-up food to celebrate. The great thing about The Elephant Walk was that the menu had lots of gluten-free(me) and vegan(him and his wife) options for us to choose from; eating out with food restrictions sometimes makes it hard to find something on the menu to eat but here we were all struggling to narrow it down to one option.

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I got the prix fixe menu which started with a fresh fruit plate. It was a little plain but the pineapple was especially delicious and a good fresh way to start.

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For the second course, I tried the S’ngao Mouan described as “Cambodian chicken soup with chicken breast, lemongrass, lime juice, fish sauce, basil and scallion.” I had never had Cambodian food before but really liked how most of the flavors were drawn from citrus and herbs. This tasted especially light and refreshing with Thai basil which has an almost minty tone to it.

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For an entrée I chose Poulet a la Citronelle “sliced chicken breasts sauteed with lemongrass, onion, red bell pepper and scallion, sprinkled with freshly roasted crushed peanuts.” This dish has a much richer flavor than the soup but was very good. The peanuts added a strong punch of flavor and the sauce was great, too.

I would definitely eat at The Elephant Walk again, or even any other Cambodian restaurant. I’m very intrigued by their flavors and food after trying them once.

And congrats to Matt and all the other Boston Marathon runners! Go ahead and eat a brownie sundae from J.P. Licks today for me.