Curried Apple and Pear Soup

Making soup for lunches for the week has become the norm in our household every Monday. I know when the temperatures start to climb most people tend to not want a hot comforting bowl of soup. I am not one of those people. I can eat soup no matter the weather. In fact, my taste buds aren't the only thing backwards. I grow my hair out in the Summer and chop it off in the Winter. Bassackwards. I know.

I decided to try out another recipe from the Flat Belly Diet! Cookbook. Curried Apple and Pear Soup. This is a great vegetarian dish. The soup has a delicate heat but could be kicked up by using a hot curry powder instead. I wish I would have had some instead of the mild curry powder but the flavor was still amazing and my taste buds couldn't agree more.

The veggies (mirepoix) were sauteed in some olive oil until they became caramelized and then seasoned with the curry powder, ground cumin, and salt. Apples and pears were then simmered in vegetable broth and water until tender. Then into the food processor until smooth. Topped with Greek style yogurt and toasted almonds. The almonds provided a crunch to a velvety soup.

Curried Apple and Pear Soup

Flat Belly Diet! Cookbook

Makes 4 Servings (Serving size = 1 1/2 cup)

Stars of the Show:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 1 celery rib, chopped
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp mild or hot curry powder - I used mild curry powder but think hot would have been better.
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 pears, peeled, cored and chopped
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 2 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup fat free Greek style yogurt
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

And Action:

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and sprinkle with the sugar. Cook, stirring often, for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender and the onion is lightly golden and caramelized.

Add the curry powder, cumin, and salt. Cook and stir for 30 seconds or until fragrant.

Add the pears and apples and stir to coat. Add the broth and water, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until the fruit is very tender.

Transfer the soup to a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process until smooth.

Return the soup to the pot and warm through.

Ladle into 4 bowls and top each with 2 tbsp of the yogurt and 2 tbsp of the almonds.

Nutritional Information Per Serving:

MUFA: Almonds

Calories: 226

Protein: 6g

Carbohydrates: 23 g

Fat: 13 g

Saturated Fat: 1 g

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Sodium: 411 mg

Fiber: 5 g

Old Fashioned Peanut Soup

In the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook Old-Fashioned Peanut Soup was the first recipe in the "Soups & Sandwiches" section. I've never heard of peanut soup... possibly why they call it old fashioned. Before my time. Haha! The book states it's a Southern classic. I've never seen it on any menu here in Texas but then again I don't eat out as much as I once did and am not traveling for work like Mr. Sideline Chef anymore.

The Old-Fashioned Peanut Soup is vegetarian and would perfect for a "Meatless Monday" meal. It is especially satisfying when paired with baked sweet potato fries and boiled greens. The peanut butter melts into the broth and melds with the broth and pureed veggies to create a bisquelike texture without any cream.

For my first taste of Old-Fashioned Peanut Soup it was delicious and interesting. I think for my personal tastes the next time I make it I would probably cut the peanut butter in half. If you are a big fan of peanut butter you will most definitely love this soup and it's healthy for you! If you don't like veggies so much this is a soup for you as well since the veggies are pureed and the peanut butter is the star flavor player. Sneaky way to get your veggies!

Old-Fashioned Peanut Soup

Flat Belly Diet Cookbook

Makes 4 Servings (Serving size = 1 1/4 cup)

Stars of the Show:

• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3 cups reduced-sodium vegetable broth, divided
• 1/2 cup creamy natural unsalted peanut butter
• 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tbsp chopped unsalted peanuts

And Action:

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until the onion softens.

Add the garlic and 2 cups of the vegetable broth. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes or until the veggies are very tender.

Transfer the soup to a food processor and process until smooth.

Return the soup to the pot and stir in the peanut butter, lemon juice, and remaining 1 cup of broth. Cook for 5 minutes or until the peanut butter melts and the flavors blend.

Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with the chopped nuts.

Nutritional Information Per Serving:

MUFA: Peanut Butter

Calories: 300

Protein: 9 g

Carbohydrates: 18 g

Fat: 22 g

Saturated Fat: 22 g

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Sodium: 156 mg

Fiber: 5 g

Carrot Ginger Soup

I did not buy a pound bag of carrots with any other intention than making some Crispy Carrot Fries or cutting them into sticks for snacks for itty bitty. Carrots are hands down his favorite vegetable. With his selectiveness, sounds so much nicer than pickiness, I didn't want to use up all of his carrots but when I opened the bag they were needing to be used since they were losing their crispness.

Needing to show my blog some love and make a worthy recipe to share I searched through some recipes at MyRecipes and came across this recipe for Carrot Ginger Soup. Believe it or not I have gone all winter without making soup. There is something seriously wrong with me. Thankfully today's weather here in Houston, Texas was perfect for soup. Rainy and cold. I'm sure with my backwardsness I'll end up making lots of soup this summer in 90+ degree.

If eating too many carrots turns my skin orange than so be it. This soup would be worth it! Carrot Ginger Soup... CRAVE WORTHY!!! I'm trying my best not to drool on my laptop as I type this. Pureed to a silky smooth consistency flavored with ginger. Low in fat and high in Vitamin C makes this a perfect healthy eating dish. Off the charts delicious! Thank goodness this soup freezes well for those busy nights or when a craving hits.  If you forget to double the recipe for leftovers to freeze than no worries because this is one easy soup to put together.

Carrot Ginger Soup

MyRecipes and Health, October 2009

Makes 4 servings (Serving size = 1 1/4 cup)

Stars of the Show:

• 2 pounds carrots, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 tsp seasoned rice wine vinegar, divided
• 3 tsp toasted sesame seeds, divided
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tsp finely grated ginger - I used ground ginger.
• 1 tsp sesame oil

And Action:

Ribbon one carrot with a vegetable peeler and transfer it to a bowl with 1 tsp rice wine vinegar and 1 tsp sesame seeds. Set aside for garnishing the soup.

Place the remaining carrots in a saucepan covered with water. Bring to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes or until very tender.

Using a slotted spoon transfer the carrots to a food processor. Add the garlic cloves, 3 cups of the cooking water, and ginger. Puree until smooth. Add in the remaining 1 tsp rice wine vinegar and the sesame oil.

Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with the carrot ribbons and remaining sesame seeds.

For freezing: Make a double batch and put in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Just thaw and heat! Simple!

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 119

Fat: 3g (sat 0.0g,mono 1g,poly 1g)

Cholesterol: 0.0mg

Protein: 3g

Carbohydrate: 23g

Fiber: 7g

Iron: 1mg

Sodium: 157mg

Calcium: 99mg

I'll be marking #2 off of my "Stir the Pot" page. 6 down, 18 to go!

Cream of Cilantro Soup

Guess who made the "nice" list for Christmas? That's right! The Pretend Chef, that's who! Santa must have been listening to all of my whining requests for a food processor. He must have hired Mr. Sideline Chef's mother to do his Christmas shopping because the last gift I opened was my food processor. "Is it big enough?" his mom asks me. It has a 12 cup capacity. Plenty big enough... if I am feeding the U.S. Marines, haha!

The worst part about being on vacation and receiving gifts is that I have to wait to get home to try them out. Our last week of vacation went by surprisingly fast and before I knew it I was at home pulling my food processor out of the box and putting the thing together.

I am not the assembly pro in our household. Mr. Sideline Chef holds that title and for good reason. I sat down in the chair next to him and attempted to pull the damn thing out of the box. Already needing assistance with that task I knew it was going to be a headache. After I unwrapped all of the parts and laid them out I figured it couldn't be that hard to put it together since there were only a handful of pieces and one page of directions for assembly. It all looked foreign to me. Thankfully Mr. Sideline Chef could hear his damsel in distress and came to my rescue. He put it together and even gave me a demo on the workings. What a guy!

My next issue was when it came time to adding the ingredients into it. I'm 4'11" and the countertops in our apartment come up to the top of my belly button and the food processor stood at the same height as me. This meant I had to lift the measuring cup with my chicken broth above my head to place it in the food chute. Me and messes go hand in hand and I suffer from little person syndrome with not wanting to have to admit that I need to use a stool when cooking. Poor Mr. Sideline Chef... when we build our first home he's going to have a bad back since he'll have to bend down when using the countertops that I demand be built to my liking.

If you don't own a food processor I would highly recommend that you start doing good deeds the month before Santa's arrival to ensure one of these gadgets makes it's way into your possession. I didn't have to chop a thing! Whipping up some soup was incredibly easy and even more enjoyable and got dinner on the table in a fraction of the time.

Onto the soup... Cream of Cilantro Soup. Absolutely delicious and so simple to make. The name of the soup says it all. It has a subtle kick from the ground red pepper and is a solid base for adding more ingredients if desired. I added a can of black beans to make it more hearty for Mr. Sideline Chef and he said that without the black beans it would have not been as satisfying to quell his hunger. We came up with other variations of what to add next time, some chicken, cheese, tortilla strips, avocado... any Mexican flavors would be a great addition.

This soup is so delicious that I regretted cutting the recipe in half because Mr. Sideline Chef and I had a moment of, "No you eat the last serving." "No you." We went back and forth before I declared that the biggest compliment to me after preparing a meal is someone heading back for seconds. It was settled and we were both left satisfied.

Cream of Cilantro Soup

MyRecipes.com and Southern Living, October 2000

Makes 6 cups (Serving size = 1 cup)

Stars of the Show:

• 1 bunch fresh cilantro, stems removed and coarsely chopped
• 1 (32 oz) package reduced sodium fat free chicken broth, divided
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 (8 oz) package fat free cream cheese
• 1 (8 oz) container light sour cream
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground red pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin

And Action:

Process cilantro and 1 cup chicken broth in food processor until blended.

Melt butter in a dutch oven over medium heat and whisk in flour. Gradually add the remaining 3 1/2 cups of chicken broth, whisking constantly until smooth. Boil for 1 minute. Stir in the cilantro mixture, cream cheese, and remaining ingredients. Simmer soup for 15 minutes. Garnish if desired.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 156 (50% from fat)

Fat: 8.6g (sat 5.2g,mono 2.5g,poly 0.4g)

Protein: 7.9g

Carbohydrate: 9.3g

Fiber: 1g

Cholesterol: 31mg

Iron: 1.6mg

Sodium: 393mg

Calcium: 177mg

Mesa Grill's Pumpkin Soup

I look forward to checking out Foodbuzz's Daily Top 9. One of those days I came across this recipe for Mesa Grill's Pumpkin Soup from Kelsey's blog over at Apple A Day through Foodbuzz. Her photo of the soup was crave worthy. A scan of the ingredients list had me giddy considering the fact that all of the items were on hand and one more meal was able to be added to the roster of meals to make to eat up what we have on hand. Please check out her blog to see the beauty that is of this pumpkin soup and how it really should have turned out. A key ingredient of mine ended up being rancid and did not make it's way into the dish.

While making my Rosemary Focaccia I set to making this soup. It has been on my mind for two days now and the orange gourd sitting in the window as a decoration of the month of October and November had seen the end of it's days. I mean come on... don't pumpkin dishes kind of lose their seasonal charm after all of the Thanksgiving leftovers have been consumed?

Never having roasted a pumpkin or any other squash I had no idea how. After a quick search on the good ol' Internet and a pictorial I was on my way to fresh not from a can pumpkin puree sans food processor just elbow grease and a fork. Okay so it didn't turn out smooth but it still tasted incredible and I can look past the chunks of pumpkin.

The real issue came when it was time to add the sour cream. Just the day before my container of sour cream looked and smelt fresh. Upon opening the container lid my stomach started to turn and I threw it away. No other creams on hand I felt stiffed out of the full experience of what this dish had in store.

What I ended up with was a spicy pumpkin soup with a broth base. It was still incredibly flavorful. In a text to my mom, "but it burns so good", is how I described the soup. Nothing a glass of milk couldn't tame. Next time I'll be sure to make sure the sour cream is fresh in order to help cut the heat from the chipotle pepper. You have to see the real deal to see how this should look and be garnished with. Absolutely beautiful with it's vibrant orange color compared to my murky brown color. My color came from the fact that I used the full amount of chicken broth before making measuring out how much pumpkin puree I had.

Nonetheless this was absolutely delicious and will need a redo in my kitchen so I can get it right! Another inquiry I have to all of my fellow food bloggers who turn out incredible photography... what kind of camera should I tell Mr. Sideline Chef Santa he needs to bring me? This little Kodak point and shoot isn't doing the job of providing good enough food porn. Thank you in advance for the tips and ideas!

I'm not going to post the recipe on my blog. I would rather you head on over to Kelsey's Apple A Day Blog and get the recipe from there and check out her photography. I can't stress it enough. This is why she made Foodbuzz's Daily Top 9! Really? Why are you still on my page? Haha!

Sephardic Leek Soup (Sopa de Prasa)

Here in Houston, Texas it finally feels like the changing of seasons. It literally happened overnight. Yesterday while enjoying a backyard game of football I actually broke into a light sweat and the temperature was in the high 70's. This morning we wake up to rain and cold weather and temperatures in the low 40's. Shorts one day and sweaters and wool socks the next.

It was Black Friday today and I am not a fanatic for standing for hours in lines just to get a bargain. I'll suck it up and pay full price. The beauty of budgeting throughout the year. It was a pajama and movie day for my itty bitty and I. We stayed nice and warm in the comforts of our home. If you haven't seen it yet, Date Night is hilarious and gave me a good belly laugh. Perfect for well... a date night!

A craving hit today. It wasn't the usual brownies or chips and guacamole. It was a bowl of soup. Odd. I have never had a craving for soup before. I searched the Internet for a soup recipe containing leeks. I bought them for a recipe and ended up not making it. I had a bunch of leeks just sitting there and don't like to waste anything.

After chopping all of the leeks, potatoes, and carrots the leeks heavily outweighed the other two. The leek being in the onion family made me worried that the soup would have a strong onion flavor. To my knowledge I have never had leeks before and didn't know what to expect of the finished product. After the veggies sauteed for 10 minutes the herbs and broth were added, brought to a boil, and then simmered for 40 minutes.

The 40 minutes passed quickly since I had a toddler I had to calm down from his temper tantrum of asking if I was making chocolate cake to find out the answer was no. I made a Chocolate Sheet Cake with a Quick Caramel Frosting with Pecans at the beginning of this month and now every time I'm standing in the kitchen putting anything together he assumes it's chocolate cake. Sorry son. You're not that lucky! Trust me, he's not new to the workings of the house and knows that sweets are rare.

A nice big bowl of hot soup was ready. Bits of carrots and potatoes poked their way through the leeks. The aroma from the soup was not at all like that of onions. I took my spoon and dug in. The first bite reminded me of a cabbage soup instead. All of the flavors meld well together. The ingredients list is minimal and other veggies could be added to the pot depending on what you have on hand. The soup filled and warmed me up.

Sephardic Leek Soup (Sopa de Prasa)

About.com

Makes 6 servings

Stars of the Show:

• 1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil - I used vegetable oil.
• 10 leeks (about 2 pounds), trimmed, sliced and well washed - Make sure to pull those layers apart to get all of the grit out.
• 2 large baking potatoes, cubed - I used petite red potatoes since that was what I had on hand and needed to use up.
• 3 carrots, sliced
• 1 bunch parsley, chopped - I used dried parsley.
• 8 cups chicken or vegetable broth - I used chicken broth.
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper - The original recipe had a side note about how when making a white soup white pepper should be used but flavor-wise using black pepper here was recommended.
• A pinch of nutmeg - Don't skip this! It was delicious with that hint of spice in it.

And Action:

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the leek, potatoes, and carrots and saute until softened for about 5-10 minutes. Mine went for 8 minutes.

Add the parsley, broth, salt, black pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pot with a lid, and cook for 40 minutes. You can serve the soup as is like I did or put into a food processor. It can also be served chilled or warmed. Easy, easy, easy!