Healthy Veggie Soup Fetish!
The great thing about soups for dinner is that you can load them with great vegetables in so many different ways, they’re healthy, light, yet with enough low-calorie volume are very fillingly satisfying!
Among my recent fetish for making soup dinners was this one: a Bi-color bell pepper soup
..of course with additional veggies, as I couldn’t resist
The orange-side was 3 red bell peppers and one onion, finely chopped and cooked in 1Tbsp olive oil until soft, then a dash of hot red chili pepper powder, salt, pepper, and in this case a small dash of curry for an interesting twist on the flavor, and one clove of garlic crushed. Then add in 10-20mL white wine, cook off the alcohol (ie, when it sizzles down a bit, and no longer smell alcohol in the steam from it), then a good cup or two of chicken broth, and into the blender, pureed till smooth.
The green side was 2 green bell peppers, one onion, and 100 g of ocra, cooked the same, then with salt, pepper, one clove garlic crushed, and the 10-20 ml white wine again, and ~1c broth, also blended.
Pouring them smoothly and evenly into the bowl from either side at the same rate gets the nice clean divide down the middle.
And I found a nice basil cream very complementary to the soup (ie the swirl decor on top, using a good pouring-ladle) Made from heating a small amount of cream till steaming hot, then mixing in finely chopped basil and a pinch of salt, and lightly cooking to infuse with the basil flavor.
I’ll have to do this one again soon… I’m getting hungry for it again writing about it now, after eating dinner and dessert 
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Yesterday’s soup was perhaps less elegant or inspiring-looking but surprisingly delicious!
A smooth veggie soup inspired by what veggies had survived our ravenous hunger that day haha
cauliflower
some sweet red peppers (bell peppers, or the long-pointy sweet red ones)
remains of a clump of celery
onions
(the second time I also added in a big white zucchini in the mix too)
Cooking it:
heat a few tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a big pot (don’t worry, it’s the only fats goign into this soup, so be generous enough with 4-5Tbsp to coat the bottom), and toss in 2-3 onions diced, and about 4-5 stalks of celery also diced small. Over medium heat let them cook till tender, stirring to ensure none burn. Then trim the base of the head of cauliflower, and chop slice the whole head up, giving fairly thin pieces of the veggie. Toss into the pot and mix that up. Season with a tidbit of salt, (later will add boullion-water or chicken broth, which is salty, so not too much). Then still over medium heat, I poured in 1 c white wine over this, and let the alcohol steam off, and it cooked down until barely any liquid visible at the bottom. Then toss over the chopped sweet red peppers (3 in my case). Then pour in a good 2 cups of chicken broth over it– enough to reach the top of the veggies. And about 1-2 tsp of dried thyme, 1 tsp ground pepper, and 1tsp garlic powder. I let that stew covered over medium-low heat for about 30 min– or to the point that the cauliflower is very soft, so that if you stab it with a fork it’ll break apart rathe than stay on the fork. Pour the whole soup slop into a blender and puree on high speed until very smooth–a few minutes. Really when you leave it in a bit longer, the cauliflower clumpy texture goes away and blends it into a really smooth soft soup.
I think the highly-blended cauliflower makes the soup a bit creamy, or as though there were a potato puree in it, except, cauliflower is wayy less caloric than potato to get the same effect ( 23 Calories per 100 g cauliflower, versus 87 Calories per 100 g in potatos which is prettymuch all more starches)
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Both times i’ve done this soup, i’ve happened to serve this on the side, too–
Wasabi-garlic broccoli ….(or cauliflower works, too) SPIcy!!
super easy–> steam the broccoli or cauliflower chunks, and in somehting you can vigorously mix/shake mix a few spoons of olive oil, a hefty dollop of wasabi paste, and some smashed roasted garlic cloves, salt and fresh ground pepper, then when the broccoli’s done, just toss in the sauce… just enough sauce to make a very light coating and that classic wasabi flare in the nostrils when enjoying it 
REally light-weight meals which is great that they don’t sit heavy overnight if I’m eating fairly late
