Smoky Tomato Soup

Oh my goodness this is my new favorite gotta-get-dinner-ready-in-less-than-20 minutes recipe! It is so tasty but quick and very healthy. The key is the quality of the ingredients so make sure you actually have the smoked paprika and the fire roasted tomatoes. Don't substitute the regular versions.

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 chopped onion
2 chopped garlic cloves
3/4 tsp smoked paprika
2 large 28 oz cans fire roasted diced tomatoes (Muir Glen makes an organic version usually in the health food aisle and I recently found some made by Hunt's in the regular vegetable aisle. )
1/2 C orange juice

Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the onions and saute about 5 minutes until they are soft. Add garlic and paprika and saute for 2 more minutes. Add tomatoes and orange juice and simmer for 10 minutes. Transfer half the soup to a blender and blend until smooth. Since it will be hot, make sure you open the center piece on the lid to allow steam to escape. Cover it with a towel as you blend. Pour into a large bowl and repeat with other half. Or you can use an immersion blender if you have one. I prefer the regular blender because it makes smoother soup. Top with some Parmesan or cheddar cheese or sour cream and enjoy.

We sometimes make grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it if we are especially hungry.

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

5 lb tomatoes, deseeded and stemmed and quartered

6 garlic cloves smashed

1/8 C olive oil and 2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 C onion, chopped

1 C water

1 C chicken broth (or vegetable for a vegetarian option)

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt, halved

½ teaspoon black pepper

1/3 C cream or 2% milk

1/4 C fresh dill (or basil depending on your preference)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450.

Put quartered tomatoes and garlic cloves in a large casserole dish and toss with 1/8C olive oil, ½ teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper. Roast for 40 minutes. They will be very soft and produced a lot of liquid.

In a large pot sauté onion in the remaining 2 T of olive oil for 5-7 minutes or until soft. Stir in water, broth, sugar, remaining ½ teaspoon salt, and all of roasted tomato mixture. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Then transfer soup to a blender and add your fresh herbs. They don’t have to be chopped, just throw the clean whole leaves in and let the blender do the work for you. Be careful with the hot soup in the blender, only filling the blender half way and covering the top with a dish rag to avoid spills.

Blend until smooth and return the soup to the pot to add the cream or milk. Do not let the soup boil (no bubbles) after you add the dairy.

Vietnamese Noodle Soup

This is one of Jeff's favorite soups. We made it the other night for dinner and had leftovers for lunch. It was fantastic both times! You should be able to find fresh ginger and cilantro in the produce department of most grocery stores and the Asian ingredients in the ethnic food aisle.

Meatballs
1/2 lb ground pork
2 T minced scallions
2 T chopped fresh cilantro
1 T fresh ginger minced
1 T garlic minced
1 T soy sauce
1 t sweet chili sauce
1/4 t each salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients together until everything is mixed in. Scoop into teaspoon size meatballs. Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat and add 1 T vegetable oil. Brown meatballs but do not cook through. They will finish cooking in the soup.

Soup
1/4 lb rice stick noodles
6 C chicken broth
2 T soy sauce
1 T fresh ginger
1 T sugar
1 t sweet chili sauce
1 t fish sauce
1 C napa cabbage, cut into 1 inch strips
1/4 bean sprouts
1 T fresh lemon juice

Put the noodles in a large bowl and pour boiling water over them to soften. Let stand for about 15 minutes then drain and separate clumps. While meatballs are cooking, start the broth. Simmer the chicken broth, soy sauce, ginger, sugar, chili sauce, and fish sauce in a large pot or dutch oven. Cook over low heat until the meatballs are browned. Then add the meatballs and simmer until they are cooked through. They should float when they are done, usually 10 minutes or so.

Add cabbage, bean sprouts, and lemon juice and serve.

8 servings

1 C per serving- 190 calories, 9 g fat, 1 g fiber, 9 g protein

Soup, there it is!

This is one of my favorite easy Fall soups. It is really easy, really good and still healthy.

Fall Harvest Soup

Saute:

3 Tbsp butter

6 Cups cubed peeled butternut squash (1 squash, about 2 lbs)

4 Cups cubed peeled russet potatoes (3 potatoes, about 1 1/2 lbs)

Saute for 3 min. Add:

2 Cups sliced leeks (one medium leek*)

*clean well. Leeks have a lot of grit in the base. Best way to clean them is slice them then put in them in a salad spinner. Soak, then rinse, then spin. Let me know if you have questions or don't know what a leek is. I promise it is not hard.

Saute for another minute. Add:

1 Tbsp flour. Sprinkle on mixture and stir.

Stir in:

4 Cups chicken broth

Simmer 20 minutes or until potato is tender.

Once everything is soft, transfer to blender. Blend until smooth. Make sure you let steam out out of the top center piece but cover it with a towel so the mixture doesn't fly out everywhere.

Transfer back to pot but take it off the heat and add:

1 Cup milk (I typically use half and half or whole milk but last time I used skim and it turned out just fine)

1/8 teaspoon of cayenne (optional but it adds a nice little bit of heat)

Stir and serve. And it is delicious.

-- Joy