Black Bean Soup

Years ago, our pastor passed on a link for Brian's Black Bean Soup.  I had never tried black beans at that point, but was doing Phase 1 of South Beach, was tiring of the limited recipes I was using and thought this fit the bill.  Glad I did since it's delicious and filling (and I think Phase 1 friendly).

Note: I omit the cayenne pepper since we don't like things on the spicy side and find the chili powder gives it enough of a kick for our liking.

Italian Sausage Soup

Since we were South Beaching it again, it was time to try some new recipes.  This one I got from an on-line recipe site, but did do some changing so I'll just post it here.  It is quite different then what we were used to but good.

Italian Sausage Soup

1 pound Italian Sausage (I used Octoberfest)
1 clove garlic, minced
3 1/2c beef broth
1 (428ml) can stewed tomatoes (I used diced)
1c sliced carrots (or peppers if on South Beach Phase 1)
1/4t salt
1/4t pepper
1t basil
1/2t oregano
2T parsley
1 (428) can navy or kidney beans, undrained
2 small zucchini, cubed
2c spinach, packed, rinsed and torn

In a Dutch oven, brown sausage with garlic.  Stir in broth, tomatoes and carrots or peppers and seasonings.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 min.  Stir in beans with liquid and zucchini.  Cover and simmer another 15 min or until zucchini is tender.  Remove from heat and add spinach.  Replace lid allowing the heat from the soup to cook the spinach leaves.  Soup is ready to serve after 5 minutes.

Soup Substitutes

Have you ever looked at the sodium content on your condensed soups? Or your onion soup package? Or even your beef bouillon base? You might be quite surprised at what you find. I know I was. I recently compared low sodium beef base with regular beef base. The regular contained 16,500mg sodium/100gr while the low sodium was 20mg/100gr. Yes you read that right! Shocking isn't it!

Here are some recipes I found on-line that you can do to substitute for the higher sodium convenience counterparts which don't actually take much more time to do, probably cost less (I know the onion soup mix is) and which definitely have less sodium in them.

Copycat Onion Soup Mix
I store in an old jam jar. If you use the low sodium bouillon, it's definitely a lot less salty then the original, but even if you add a touch of salt (and sea salt or kosher is best), you're probably still not going to equal the amount in the regular bouillon.

Cream Soup Substitute
I tried this recently when I realized that I was out of cream soup part way through cooking and couldn't get to the store. It worked and tasted great! If you search for cream soup substitute you'll also see a powdered version. I've tried this in the past with unfavourable results and this was much better (in my opinion).

Butternut Squash Soup

Today I made Butternut Squash Soup from the recipe that was in yesterday's paper and it was so yummy and easy that I just had to share it with you.

Butternut Squash Soupserves 8

6c butternut squash, peeled and cubed
3 1/2c chicken stock
1 1/2c chopped onion
1 bay leaf
1/2t nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1c plain yogurt

In a large saucepan, combine squash, stock, onions and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 min or until squash is tender. Remove bay leaf. In a blender, puree soup in batches until smooth. Return to pan. Season with nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. To serve, ladle soup into bowls and swirl 2T of yogurt in each (was yummy with the yogurt).

Note: Soup can be cooled and frozen for up to 2 months. Not sure about the serving 8 bit. I got six servings (four in the freezer, one in the fridge for tomorrow and one in my tummy)

Savoury Tomato Soup

Last week a friend of mine gave me some wonderful Roma tomatoes off her vine which made a delicious spaghetti sauce. This made me very ambitious and I decided to buy a bushel of Roma tomatoes to can some more sauce. Well, I didn't realize how big a bushel was and it didn't really register until I had all those Roma tomatoes home and started the process. By day one I had 51/2 liters of sauce and had only made it through about 1/3 of the tomatoes - I was in trouble! My husband took one look at it all when he got home, laughed at me and thought I was insane (I was thinking the same thing too). It took me a whole day just to PEEL the tomatoes. Roma's may make great sauce, but each little tomato requires to be peeled which is VERY time consuming. Needless to say, I managed to get it all done and ended up with 14.5 ltrs of tomato sauce and 7 ltrs of diced tomatoes. I'm sure that will last us for a while as I hope to not see a tomato for a good long time and if I decide to do this again, will see if I can enlist the help of a friend to make the peeling process a bit quicker.

So, with my mind still on tomatoes, here is a recipe that I got in high school cooking class. It is simple and good and uses up some of those canned tomatoes.

Savoury Tomato Soup (4 servings)
1T oil or butter
1/4c chopped celery
2T chopped green onion
2T flour
1 1/4c water
1 chicken bouillon cube (or 2 1/2t powder)
1t sugar
1 tin (19oz) stewed tomatoes

In a small saucepan, cook celery and green onion in butter/oil over medium heat until tender but not brown. Blend in flour. Add remaining ingredients. Cook, stirring constantly until slightly thick. Reduce heat. Cook slowly for 15 min, stirring occasionally. Serve