soup Archives - Happy Healthy RD

Miso Potato Soup

January 12, 2016 by 8 Comments

I received free samples of Progresso Cooking Stock mentioned in this post at no cost. By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by Progresso Cooking Stock and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time. #ProgressoEatsContest

When I was growing up one of our little town’s restaurants had potato soup Thursdays. In high school, we spent countless Thursdays eating potato soup at Clementine’s. Such good memories! Clem’s potato soup was delicious, creamy, and I think it actually had noodles in it. I haven’t had it in years but can taste it like it was yesterday. So needless to say potato soup has a special place in my heart and also is one of my favorite comfort foods.

Fast forward to today, with New Year resolutions of healthy eating on the brain, I wanted to create a recipe that evoked rich memories of Clementine’s potato soup while also keeping things on the light and healthy side. This potato soup contains ample veggies and no heavy creams or cheese. It also fits into vegan, dairy free, or gluten free categories if that’s your jam. So you can enjoy it while still sticking to your resolutions. (Extra health points if you top with a little shredded kale but that’s totally optional – I admit a few crunchy croutons would probably taste much better. )

Derek actually made a similar soup a while back and came up with the idea of adding the miso. I’ve been wanting to recreate it for awhile. Miso has a delicious nutty salty flavor that goes perfect in a potato soup, giving it a creaminess and richness without the need for butter or cream. If you are new to miso, it is a fermented soybean product. It is also good in salad dressings, stir frys, or just plain miso soup is pretty delicious too. Just make sure to add the miso at the end of the cooking process since it is fairly delicate.

I have a couple of other tricks for creating a creamy dairy free soup. First is adding nutritional yeast, which lends a creamy cheesy flavor. Nutritional yeast is an amazing product – vegans everywhere bow down to nutritional yeast since it tastes so cheesy. I usually find it in the bulk section of our health food store.

Second is taking a few cups of the soup, blending it, and then adding it back into the pot. This adds a smooth texture and thickens the soup a bit.

We often make our own homemade stock but sometimes there just isn’t time for that and it is handy to have a few containers of ready-to-go stock in the pantry. Progresso recently came out with a new line of cooking stocks that are a pretty darn good substitute for homemade stock. They are made by simmering real bones (pretty sure 2016 is going to be the year of bone broth btw), vegetables, and herbs. Plus no artificial colors or crazy weird ingredients are anywhere to be found. I used Progresso vegetable stock in this recipe and it gave the soup a wonderful deep homemade flavor but I think chicken stock would also work well too.

As always, I encourage you to play around with this recipe. If you do not have nutritional yeast and want to add milk or cheese, do it! The miso is optional also but I might recommend adding a bit more salt if left out. Enjoy!

Miso Potato Soup

Makes 6-8 servings

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

2 cups white onion, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup carrot, chopped

1 cup parsnip, chopped

6 white Russet potatoes, chopped (I peeled 3 and left the skin on 3)

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 box (32 oz) Progresso Vegetable Cooking Stock

2 cups water

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

2 cups finely chopped kale

2 tablespoons white miso

1-2 teaspoon salt (more to taste)

Heat a large stock pot over medium heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Add chopped onions and cook until soft and translucent. Add in celery, carrots, parsnips, and potatoes. Cook on medium to low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add oregano and thyme and stir until incorporated. Add the 4 cups of broth and two cups of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 30-40 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Add in nutritional yeast and chopped kale and cook until kale is wilted. If you want a creamier texture, take two cups of the soup and blend until smooth in a blender and add back in. While heat is on the low, stir in the 2 tablespoons of miso. Salt to taste (I added about 2 teaspoons of salt at the end.)

If I haven’t shown my love for soup enough yet, check out a few of my other soup recipes.

Butternut Squash Soup

Curry Chicken Lentil Soup

Curried Broccoli Soup

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

As always my fellow Recipe Reduxers knocked it out of the park with all their creative recipes. Check them out below!

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Roasted Tomato Basil Soup – Perfect for Freezing

September 21, 2015 by 3 Comments

This month’s Recipe Redux theme is a great one!

Fantastic Freezer Meals:

Share your tips and tricks for making one – or more freezer meals. It’s the end of the gardening season for some of us; let’s store away that produce in heat-and-eat-from-the-freezer-meals. Show how convenient healthy freezer breakfast, lunches or dinners can be!

I would love to have a stocked freezer with easy to grab meals. I have had such good intentions of doing those make 10 freezer meals in a day programs that you see on Pinterest but it just hasn’t happened yet. However, I am pretty good about freezing soup. So that is what I thought I would share today, an easy soup recipe that freezes well. What really happens is we usually make way toooo much soup for two people to eat so I always throw some in the freezer. It comes in really handy for lunches or quick dinners. A space saving way to freeze soups is in quart size freezer bags. When first placing in freezer, just make sure bag is on a flat surface.

We decided to invest in a chest freezer a few years ago since our fridge freezer doesn’t have a ton of room. I like having a big freezer but I could never remember what was in it so I decided to get a small whiteboard and keep track of what gets frozen and what gets used. It’s been pretty helpful so far.

Our garden is still producing a tomato here and there but I think this is the last big batch of tomatoes we are going to get for the season. It’s going to be such a nice treat this winter to pull out a soup made with fresh tomatoes. I followed Ina Garten’s Roasted Tomato Basil Soup recipe since she can do no wrong, I have always had success with her recipes. Have you tried her lemon curd recipe? Holy cow, it’s good.

Anyways, back to the soup I think the key is roasting the tomatoes first. It brings out all the natural sweetness. Using a food mill to remove some of the seeds and skins also gives it a nice smooth texture. I didn’t strain everything out because I like chunkier soups but you could easily strain it completely. I’ve heard that blending tomato seeds can make soups or sauces bitter so I didn’t use my immersion blender like I do with most soups.

This soup is perfect with a grilled cheese. There isn’t a combination that is better than tomato soup and grilled cheese, is there?

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

Slightly modified from the Food Network recipe courtesy of Ina Garten

Ingredients

20-22 (about 3 pounds) ripe plum tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)

6 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 cans diced tomatoes

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed

3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed and finely chopped

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1 quart stock (chicken or vegetable) water

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. After tomatoes are cut, mix the tomatoes, 1/4 cup olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place on baking sheet and bake for 35-45 minutes until tomatoes are starting to caramelize. I suggest rotating the pan about 20 minutes through to ensure even roasting.

Heat a soup pot over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons olive and sauté the onions until soft and translucent. Turn heat to low and add in garlic and red pepper flakes and continue to cook for about 5-6 minutes. Watch closely so garlic does not burn. Add in diced tomatoes, basil, thyme, rosemary and stock. Remove roasted tomatoes from oven and add to soup pot. Bring soup to a boil and simmer uncovered for 60 minutes. Process about 4 cups of the soup with a food mill and incorporate back into unmilled soup for a slightly chunkier soup. Process all the soup for a very smooth soup. Add salt and pepper to taste.

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Curried Broccoli Soup

May 18, 2015 by 2 Comments

This soup goes down as one of the easiest soups ever. It’s perfect for when you have no dinner plans and a bunch of broccoli that needs to be eaten which was recently the case in our house. Just 6 ingredients and I bet you already have most of them in your pantry. This soup would work for vegans/vegetarians if you use veggie broth and those that are gluten-free. It’s a soup for everyone! As long as they like broccoli.

Garlic and onions are sautéed with curry powder. Add in broccoli and broth and let it cook.

Puree once broccoli is soft and tender and dinner is served. Some crunchy croutons or a grilled cheese would compliment this soup perfectly!

Curried Broccoli Soup

Makes about 6 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup chopped onion, red or white works

1 tablespoon garlic, finely chopped

2 teaspoons curry powder

6-7 cups of chopped broccoli (or one large head of broccoli)

4 cups of broth, chicken or veggie

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, saute onions in olive oil over medium heat. Once onions are soft and translucent, reduce heat to low and add in garlic. Stir 1-2 minutes. Add curry powder and stir to combine. Add in chopped broccoli (it does not have to be finely chopped.) Stir to mix with other ingredients. Add in 4 cups of your favorite broth. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce down to a simmer. Stir occasionally and cook until broccoli is soft enough to break up with a spoon, about 30 minutes. Use an immersion blender or regular blender to puree the soup. If the soup appears too thick, add in an additional 1/2-1 cup broth until at desired consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil.

Good to the last drop!

Be Happy, Be Healthy!