I've been thinking about my Mom a lot lately, and one thing that always reminds me of her is her luscious, yet healthy pureed vegetable soup. The thing that's so wonderful about this soup is that you can basically clean out the left-over contents of your fridge, and it will always taste delicious.
Start with a drizzle of olive oil or butter (or both), and sauté chopped onions, garlic, or leeks, as I've done here.
Saute till the leeks or onions are starting to brown. The more caramelized they are, the richer depth of flavor they'll add to the soup.
Here's the fun part. Gather whatever veggies you have in the fridge--left over cooked veggies, the old carrots you forgot about at the bottom of the bin that are slightly flabby, the half tomato that's been in there for a week but you forgot to use, literally anything that doesn't have mold on it! I've used some random radishes, asparagus spears, a sweet potato, forgotten about carrots, some cooked haricot verts (that's green beans to you), I even threw in some leftover pesto I had made the other week.
The key is to chop everything up into similar sized pieces, so it will all cook at the same rate.
I've dumped the contents of my veggie bins in here, but you can also use just one vegetable--like cauliflower, if you want to. It will come out just as yummy.
Now pour in a liquid to cover the veggies--I've used beef stock, because I happened to have it in the cupboard. But you can use chicken stock, or just plain water.
Put the lid on, and simmer for about 30 minutes or till the veggies are tender. This is where I usually pour myself a glass of wine and turn Food Network on to see if Chopped is on!
Once the veggies are fork tender, let the mixture cool down a bit, then transfer to a blender. You can use an immersion blender if you want to. I'm using a Vitamix because I'm a sucker for demonstrations, and the Vitamix guy at Wegmans managed to convince me I couldn't live without a $400 blender. Oy.
Add as much or as little of the liquid to achieve the consistency that appeals to you. I like my soup a bit thicker. Transfer the whole batch back to the dutch oven, and season, season, season. Very important! Obviously add salt and pepper. I've used my favorite all-purpose seasoning, my friend Chef Donna's "Adoro" from the Spice and Tea Exchange. Curry would be wonderful with cauliflower---maybe a few dashes of Siracha if you want to add some heat. Anything goes!
Add a little milk, or heavy cream if you want a richer soup. I usually just add a dollop of Greek yogurt or sour cream to my individual serving.
There is no right or wrong with this recipe. It all works, whatever ingredients and spices you pick!
And the best part is that the entire batch is only 10 calories! (or something like that!)
If you want to drop a few pounds fast, eat this for lunch for 2 weeks. Seriously!
As Mimi would say...Bon Appetit!
Miss you Mom! XOXO
