Bean and Bacon Soup

I am slowly venturing into Beanland, since I have found some that I like the taste of. Kidney beans and black beans are definitely out, but small white beans are okay. I decided to make some soup today for lunch. Who knew that you could cook beans super fast in the pressure cooker? I didn't! I will definitely try some more recipes with beans knowing how quick the pressure cooker gets them done.
Anyway, I cooked up 1/2 pound of small white beans with some salt, pepper, and a bay leaf.

I reserved half of those beans in the fridge for another day. For John and I for lunch I put in 1 cup of beans and 2 cups of veggie broth in a saucepan. Added a bit of S&P. Brought to a boil and used a potato masher to smush the beans up.
I then cooked up 2 slices of bacon.
After dividing the soup into 2 bowls, I crumbled 1 slice of bacon into each bowl.
Calories were about 230, 6 grams of fat, 15 grams of protein, 18 (!!!) grams of fiber. I wish the soup was a bit thicker, but either less broth or more beans would probably take care of that.
Quite tasty and pretty easy with the cooked beans.

Butternut squash soup and variation

Butternut squash soup

Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen butternut squash cubes
1/4 cup onions
1 tablespoon coconut oil
4 cups veggetable broth
S&P to taste

Saute the onions in the coconut oil. Add the butternut squash cubes and cook for a few minutes. Add the broth, and simmer for 20 minutes until the squash in tender. Puree with a stick blender. This is a thin, broth-like soup, great for a base.



Today I wanted something hot for lunch, and soup sounded good, but I wanted a heartier soup. So, I thought I would heat up a cup of my butternut squash soup and add 3 tablespoons of couscous. Then for protein I chopped up the end of the smoked ham from christmas and added it. It was so good! The soup thickened up nicely, and the ham added a great salty contrast to the sweet base.

Delicata squash soup

Tried delicata squash today. I was in the mood for soup, since we have a winter storm coming. I split the delicata and roasted it in the toaster oven.
Then I scraped it out and put it in the magic bullet blender. I guess you are supposed to be able to eat the skin, but it seemed a bit tough to me, so I just scooped it out. I used 1 cup of veggie broth. The squash was 110 grams of 'meat'.
I wanted protein, so I scoured the fridge. I chopped up a veggie sausage patty and then added some feta cheese. Strange combo, I know - but it turned out pretty good. I am craving salty stuff today, so this kind of hits the spot. The cheese didn't really melt, which gave it an interesting texture, but maybe a bit rubbery. I topped it with 10 grams of toasted walnuts for crunch - those were the best part!

Roasted Veggie Soup

Yum! Super easy. This really doesn't need to be measured per se, unless you are counting calories.

1 sweet potato (350 grams)
150 grams frozen cauliflower
85 grams frozen carrots
2 cups vegetable broth
cooking spray, salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400.
Peel and chunk the sweet potato. Place all veggies on a cookie sheet and spritz with cooking spray. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast the veggies until they are tender and have a golden brown tinge to the edges. Like this:

Then put the veggies in a blender, add the vegetable broth and puree until smooth. Voila! You have soup. This made about 3 cups of soup for me.

Served with a dollop of Fage yogurt.

Sweet Potato Soup

This soup was very tasty. I used a 450 gram sweet potato, it was pretty big and made a couple cups of soup.

Sweet potato soup

* 2 large sweet potato(es)
* 2 cup canned chicken broth, divided
* 1 Tbsp reduced-calorie margarine
* 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
* 1/4 tsp ground ginger
* 1 cup fat-free evaporated milk
* 1 Tbsp chopped pecans

Instructions

* Pell, then cook the sweet potatoes in a microwave or pressure cooker until soft.

* Combine sweet potatoes and 3/4 cup of broth in a blender or food processor; blend or process until smooth, about 1 minute. Set potato mixture aside.

* Melt margarine in a medium-size saucepan; stir in flour and ginger, and then add milk. Cook, stirring, until slightly thickened and bubbly, about 5 minutes. Cook 1 minute more and then stir in sweet potato mixture and remaining 1 1/4 cups of broth. Cook, stirring, until heated through, about 5 minutes more. Pour into 4 serving bowls and sprinkle each with 3/4 teaspoon of pecans. Yields about 1 cup per serving.