WINTER TIME SOUPS

Warm yourself up this winter with wholesome, chock full of nutrients, stick-to-your-ribs soups!  Try these tips to make your soups a nutritious meal.  Soups are one of the easiest foods to slim down in calories and fat without compromising flavor.  That's because they are typically a lower-fat food.

Use these tips to help you prepare quick and easy soups, or soups that simmer for several hours:

To Thicken Soups:

• Add soaked beans or a can of garbanzo, kidney, navy, or cannelini beans; during the last 15 minutes of cooking, remove 1 cup of cooked beans and puree in a bowl with a hand held blender.  Add back to the soup and stir through.

• Add starchy vegetables - corn, peas, rutabaga, turnip, cream style corn, a package of frozen butternut squash, canned pumpkin, or frozen mashed potatoes. 

• Add thickeners like rice, orzo, or lentils.

• If you like really thick soup, puree a portion of the above with a hand held blender right in the pot of soup.

To Sweeten:

• Add sweet vegetables like carrots, rutabaga, carrots, or winter squash (butternut or acorn)

For Creamy Soups:

• Stir in a can of evaporated skim milk or fat-free non-dairy creamer towards the last ten minutes of cooking.  Puree starchy vegetables or pasta, or add a can of cream style corn.

• Substitute 1/2 of the broth called for in the recipe with skim milk.  Coat the vegetables with 1/4 cup flour, then add the broth/skim milk mixture.  Heat gently until mixture thickens.

Fresh Vegetables:

• For extra vitamins, minerals, and fiber, add mushrooms (Portabello, brown crimini), cabbage, onions, zucchini, celery, carrots, peppers, leeks, fennel, green beans, turnips, winter squash, and Yukon gold potatoes. Scrub the vegetables and leave the skin on when possible.

Convenience Items to Add:

• Canned tomatoes, tomato paste, reduced-sodium broth, and beans (rinse off the liquid to reduce the sodium)

• Frozen peas, corn, mixed vegetables, chopped spinach, butternut squash

• Frozen pasta such as tortellini (6 grams of fat or less per serving)

For Extra Flavor While Limiting the Sodium:

• Add reduced-sodium diced tomatoes.

• Cut the canned tomatoes in half and replace with tomato paste (20 mgs. or less sodium per serving).

• Add reduced-sodium broth or soup base in a jar (limit the amount you use because it is high in sodium.

• Replace broth with reduced-sodium tomato juice for a tomato flavor.  If you like spicy, look for spicy tomato juice.

For Extra Tang:

• Stir in 1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar towards the end of cooking.

• Roast vegetables with garlic and onion before adding to the soup.  To roast vegetables, clean, peel, and coarsely chop.  Evenly place in a jelly roll pan, loosely cover with foil, and bake at 400 degrees for about 35-45 minutes, or until tender.

• Toss in a few dashes of hot sauce.

• Orange juice and grated orange peel add a citrus flavor to black bean soup.

• Dehydrated onion and dried mushrooms add flavor.

For the Base:

• Start with reduced-sodium broth, soup base, or reduced-sodium tomato or vegetable juice.

Hearty Fillers:

• Add lentils, split peas, garbanzo beans, pasta, kidney beans, cannelini beans, and starchy vegetables; use the quick soak method for softening beans.

• Quick cooking barley, arborio rice, basmati rice, orzo, acini de pepe pasta, and egg noodle flakes are starchy fillers.

Meats:

• Low-fat smoked sausage, skinless turkey or chicken breast, ground round, pork loin, stew beef from round, or salmon, scallops, clams, and shrimp all add flavor with limited fat.  If you can brown the meat and wipe out the fat from the pan before adding the remaining ingredients, you will reduce the fat and calories in your final product.

Herbs:

• Bay leaves are specially good in bean soups.  Be sure to remove the leaf before serving.  Dill is especially good in tomato soups.  Rosemary adds a wonderful flavor to roasted soup (fresh is best); basil and oregano are good in Italian-type soups.