Minestrone Soup

Looking for a low fat soup, high in vitamins and fiber? This soup is made without any sautéing, which eliminates any added fats, and is made with water as a base, so is a vegan soup as well! This is a great way to experiment with any veggie, because there isn't one that you couldn't throw in.  Visit the farmers market *(or harvest what's left in your garden) and throw it all in a pot.  The sweetness of your fresh veggies will blend together to make a delicious and nutritious brew.  We have added chickpeas for protein (which aides in healing and rebuilding damages tissues), but you can omit these if you want a completely fat free soup. Feel free to double and freeze this.  This and all other soups, freeze great!

Minestrone Soup 

Ingredients (this recipe made a large stock pot, abt 4-5 quarts) :

• 1.5 cups of chopped onions
• 3 cups of carrots
• 1 cup of mushrooms
• 1 cup of celery
• 5 cups chopped tomatoes
• 1.5 cups chopped broccoli or cauliflower (or a mix of both)
• 1 cup of peppers (can make them banana peppers if you like the heat, but reduce amount)
• 2 cups chopped greens or cabbage 
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper (or more to taste)
• 8 cups of water
• 1 tbsp garlic, chopped 
    
  
  

Instructions:

1. Add carrots, onions, celery, and mushrooms to pot, along with about 3 tbsp water, sauté
   
2. Add tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking.
3. Add rest of ingredients, except if using fresh greens instead of cabbage.  Add greens right at the end of cooking process to maintain vitamins. The same is true for the garlic. 
4. Cook soup for about 20 minutes.
5. Soup can be partially puréed with a stick blender, or remove some of soup and place into a blender and return to pot, to create a thicker soup
6. Serve sprinkled with a little bit of Parmesan cheese and a salad for a great meal!

Nutritional Benefits:

Virtually No fat (1g in entire recipe): heart healthy and great for diabetics

Packed with fiber and vitamins 

Tomatoes: High in Lycopene, an anti-oxidant that prevents cancer
Peppers: High in Vitamin C, promotes healing and disease prevention (199% of daily needs!-1 cup has more than 2x's the amounts of an orange)

Carrots: High in fiber, high in Vitamin A: beta carotene, which is an anti-oxidant that prevents cancer, healthy immune system and promotes cell growth/tissue repair (1 cup has 308% of your daily Vitamin A needs)
Cabbage: 1 cup contains: 67% of daily Vitamin K and 43% of Vitamin K, high in anti-oxidants, cabbage helps to decrease inflammation, Red cabbage is much high in anti-oxidants than green cabbage (so if you want to replace all the cabbage with red, feel free!)

Broccoli: high in vitamin A and K, broccoli can aid in absorption of vitamin D, and is anti-inflammatory.

Chick peas: high in protein, a nutrient essential for healing and repairing damaged tissues, 1 cup=12 grams, they're also high in potassium, 954 mg in 1 cup with only 1g of fat and 14g of fiber!

Garlic: Anti-inflammatory and aids in blood circulation/cardiovascular health

End of Summer Chowder

Most chowders are high in fat.  This one has none! This soup is made vegan, although if you want to, you can use stock instead of water (we don't think it's necessary). 

Take advantage of all the delicious veggies at the farmers market (or in your garden) right now.  Soups freeze very well.  We freeze ours in plastic quart containers for easy meals when we don't feel like cooking.  This will provide you with healthy options, instead of grabbing take-out.  So-go ahead, make a big pot right now :) all of the ingredients listed can easily be swapped out for other you have on hand.  

Ingredients:

2 quarts of corn kernels from about 10 ears of corn: if using frozen use 8 cups

6 cobs of corn (after kernels have been removed)-if using frozen corn, it's fine to omit this 

3 sweet potatoes  skinned & chopped (about 3 cups)

4 cups of cubed eggplant (skin removed)

2-3 cups of cabbage 

4 cups onions
3/4 cup banana peppers

2 tbsp garlic chopped

12 cups of water

2 tsp dried thyme or 2 tbsp fresh thyme

1 cup of fresh basil chopped (can be replaced with parsley)

1 1/2 tsp salt

Pepper to taste

Directions:

Place all ingredients into pot

Bring to a boil, then simmer

Remove cobs

After Soup Was Puréed

Purée using a stick blender or by placing 1/2 of the soup into a blender.  This will make the soup creamy.  

For a creamier soup, you can add milk at the end (around 2 cups)

This recipe makes a large soup pot full.  This recipe is easily halved. 

Nutritional Benefits:

No fat

High in fiber

Cabbage: cruciferours vegetable which has been linked to preventing many cancers, antioxidant, and high in fiber

Sweet Potatoes: high in beta-carotene a vitamin A component which is an anti-oxidant and aids in healing, promoting tissue/cell repair

Eggplant: lessens free radiacals in the body (reducing cancer causinf agents), helps to lower bad cholesterol in the body, anti-oxidant, high in fiber
Peppers: high in Vitamin c, an anti-oxidant that helps fight infection

*note: this soup is higher in carbohydrates due to the corn.  If you are a diabetic, limit your servings.  The benefit however, is that this is a high fiber soup, which will take time for the body to process and breakdown, unlike other simple forms of carbohydrates.

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