i make a lot of soup- kale and white bean soup

so in doing this "quick and dirty"  haha, I wrote it twice now in less than an hour!  re-cap I realized I make a lot of soup...at least once a week.  Why?  Because they are delicious, they make good leftovers, and it's cold...so until it warms up I most likely will continue to be making at least one type a week- you are warned.

Look at how pretty the rainbow kale is!

This is one of my favorite soups, the flavors in it are so warm (the curry) and deep, it's packed with nutrient dense vegetables (kale and sweet potatoes) with some protein (white beans) thrown in for good measure-  





Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 small onion, halved and thinly sliced (1 cup)
• 3 cups chopped kale
• 1 small garnet yam, peeled and diced (1 cup)
• 1 Tbs. smoked sweet paprika, plus more for garnish
• 1 Tbs. curry powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 2 15.5-oz. cans great Northern beans, drained and rinsed, divided
• 2 Tbs. red wine vinegar 

Directions

1. Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, and cook 8 minutes, or until lightly caramelized, stirring often.
2. Add kale, and cook 4 to 5 minutes, or until wilted. Stir in yam, paprika, curry powder, and bay leaf; cook 1 minute more, or until fragrant.
3. Add broth, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook 30 minutes, or until kale and yam are tender. Purée 1 cup beans with 3/4 cup water in blender or food processor. Add purée and remaining beans to soup. Simmer 10 minutes, then stir in vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle each serving with paprika.

Source: VegetarianTimes

Enjoy!
xo
Andrea 

Tortollini Soup!

Go ahead...I dare you, take a guess what kind of day it was when I made this soup...warm and sunny??? ahh...I wish...if you guessed cold and grey...BING BING BING!!! you win!!  This soup was surprisingly really good considering how simple it was to prepare.  My husband who barely offers compliments without prompting even said it was delicious- the leftovers are gone...both sure signs that this is worth repeating.

Ingredients

1 tbsp. olive oil
½ cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp. dried oregano
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes, with juices
4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth 

9 oz. tortellini, any variety, fresh or frozen, shhh! i used Trader Joes Pesto Filled, sorry Whole Foods who employs my husband
3-5 cups fresh baby spinach, loosely packed, I used closer to 5
Salt and pepper
Grated Parmesan, for serving

Directions:
--In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the onions to the pan and cook until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add in the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, just until fragrant, about 1 minute. 

-- Mix in the oregano and diced tomatoes.  Add the broth to the pot.  Bring the mixture to a boil.  

--Add the tortellini to the pot and cook according to the package directions.  One minute before the tortellini is fully cooked, stir in the spinach.  Remove from the heat.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  

--Serve warm with grated Parmesan as desired. 

Since the tortellini I was using was leftover from earlier in the week and therefor already cooked, I made the soup as indicated above however, right before serving added the tortellini and spinach, while still simmering until the tortellini was heated through and spinach was wilted.

Source: Annie Eats- Tortellini Soup 

Enjoy!

xo

Andrea

"S" is for Soup!!!

Over the two weeks I also made two types of soups...one delicous and one that was eh' just okay.  I'll post it anyways bc I'm sure someone out there would like it.  It wasn't a bad soup it's just that me and my family are pretty particular when it comes to tomato soup...basically we like this one- and that's about it:

I have tried all different types of store bought versons, made a few myself, like last summer when we had so many tomatoes from our garden I didn't know what to do with them!!  And yup, that soup was not anywhere close to being as tastey as this boxed version.  Last week I saw this recipe Creamy Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup  and figured, "what the heck, let's try it....maybe this will be one that works for our family!"  What is the definition of insanity again?  Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result?  or something like that?  Well yeah, this one didn't work for us either, but maybe it will work for you.

Creamy Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup 

Ingredients for the soup:
1 quart chicken stock
1 can of crushed Italian tomatoes
1 cup light cream
1 can cannellini beans (white kidney beans)
6-8 large basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1 bulb roasted garlic
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
sea salt, black pepper to taste

Directions:
Place all soup ingredients except cream into a large pot over medium-high heat until it boils.
Once it boils, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for about 15-20 min, stirring every few min to prevent burning of tomatoes.
Add cream, then use a submersion hand blender to blend ingredients into a creamy texture.
Let come to a simmer again, being careful not to boil cream.  Just reheat all ingredients together, about another 5 minutes, while whisking cream into soup.

We had this soup along with the pesto, roasted red pepper, spinach panini noted below so luckily our dinner was not a total bust!

Source: Food Buzz 

 

 

Pasta e Fagioli

 

The second of the two soups was quite the opposite of the first- for me anyways.  This is one of my all time favorite soups in the world...and I am a soup lover...this recipe was delicious and filling and nutritious, and warm!! everything you could ever ask for in a soup! 

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
3 celery ribs, chopped
3 carrots, in medium dice
1/2 large red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp dried oregano
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
2 (14.5 oz) cans or 1 (28 oz) can of diced tomatoes
3 cups low sodium vegetable broth
2Tbs Sugar
1 Parmesan rind, plus additional freshly grated Parmesan for serving
1 cup whole grain shells, or other small pasta
1 (15.5 oz) can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained **I used two cans***
I cup coarsely chopped fresh baby spinach, stems removed

Directions

In a good sized heavy pot, such as a Dutch Oven or casserole, heat oil over medium. Add celery, carrots, onion and garlic. Season with oregano, a few pinches of salt and several grinds of pepper. Cook stirring occasionally until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes.

Add tomatoes, broth, sugar and Parmesan rind. Increase heat to high and simmer rapidly until liquid thickens slightly, 5 minutes. Stir in pasta and cook, partially covered, until pasta is just shy of al dente (for my pasta, this took about 10 minutes).  ***note- I cooked my pasta separately, and added with the beans below**Add beans and continue to cook for a few minutes, until they are warmed through and pasta is al dente. Remove from heat and stir in chopped spinach. Serve topped with grated parmesan. 

 Enjoy!

Andrea 

Tomato Spinach Tortellini Soup

I started a Biggest Loser Challenge at work today and wanted to make something special for day 1. I've seen lots of Tomato Tortellini Soup and Spinach Tortellini Soup recipes that looked really good so I made myself a combo! I wish I would have taken a photo while it was still in the pot but I was very anxious to try some so here is what the individual lunch portion looks like.

Here's how I did it. It's really easy but trust me it's great! And perfect for how cold it is right now.

2 14 oz cans vegetable broth
2 10.5 oz cans tomato soup (condensed)
1 teaspoon onion flakes
9 oz package cheese tortellini
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 big handfuls of clean fresh spinach, stems removed and chopped roughly
Salt to taste
Black Pepper to taste

Boil the broth, soup, onion flakes, salt and pepper.
Add the tortellini and cook for 12 minutes
Add spinach and parmesan and cook for about 5 more minutes until the spinach is wilted.
Makes 4 servings 1.5 cups each