So what is one to do when the weather is intolerable and the energy bills are sky rocketing just so people can stay reasonably warm? Why, make soup of course!
Which is exactly what I did yesterday!
Soup is a wonderful low-fat option! Huge pots brimming with broth and tender veggies warming your very core... And so yummy! Soup recipes are some of the best recipes for not having to sacrifice flavor for low fat content.
That being said, tread carefully, as with all things. While a beautiful minestrone can be virtually fat-free, a small bowl of a "Cream of..." soup can have more fat than a Big Mac.
But in general, if you pick a broth-based soup, you should be able to tell just by looking at it whether or not it will be safe to eat. What should you look for? Simple: fat. Fat floats and will separate itself from the water. You'll see this on some asian cuisine, like a Hot and Sour Soup; there will be little pools of oil on the surface of the soup. Use your own judgement about whether or not such soups are safe to eat, and whenever possible, check the nutritional information.
All that being said, soup in general is a wonderfully versatile thing, with loads of low-fat alternatives.
A friend of mine came over for dinner last night and while we had originally invited him over for duck he informed me that he was on a special diet and said he'd bring his own food. Not wanting to have a bachelor over for dinner and not send him away full from a free meal I dug a little deeper and found he was on a soup diet - so I offered to make him soup.
While trying to decide which recipe to go with I realized how fortunate I was in preparing this meal this month since both the Cooking Light January issue and the Food Network January issue magazines had features on soup - not to mention my Cooking Light Fresh Food Superfast cookbook (the main cookbook I used during my season with gallstones) has a whole soup chapter at the beginning of the book. I narrowed down my options to a Roasted Tomato-Basil ("Fresh Food Superfast"), a Spicy Thai Coconut Chicken (Cooking Light Mag), a Portuguese Chicken, Lemon and Mint (Food Network Mag) and a Mulligatawny recipe from my own personal files. The beautiful thing about these soups is that the highest fat content per serving is 10 grams (and if you subbed out a super low-fat coconut milk for the thai soup you could get that down to 5 grams) and the Mulligatawny and Portuguese Chicken soups only have as much fat as the chicken you put into it! Last night I opted for the Mulligatawny - a tomato, curry-based soup with chicken, apples and allspice. I made it with chicken breast (I always buy a case of frozen chicken breasts whenever they go on a really good sale) so it was very low fat, and it was absolutely loaded with vegetables; it had 8 cups of chopped veggies plus 2 cups of apples to the 7 cups of liquid I put in it. After two bowls of soup I was absolutely full - I didn't even have one of the biscuits I had made for dinner! And the best part, in my opinion, is that, for a little bit of chopping yesterday, I made enough food for my family and our friend for dinner last night, plus I sent our friend home with a container of leftover soup for dinner today and I've still got a container myself that will last me for lunches both today and tomorrow!
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| Mulligatawny in the making! |
Mrs. VanderLeek
