Garden Vegetable and Bean Soup
I tend to find a recipe I like and stick with it, so I've fallen into a vegetable soup rut lately. I've been making the same Bean and Vegetable Soup for a long time--it's easy and we all like it--but sometimes I have to remind myself that there are other options out there, and some of them might be great.
So when I saw the Weight Watchers Zero Points Garden Vegetable Soup over at Alanna Kellogg's incredible blog, A Veggie Venture, I thought that this might be the time to expand my horizons and try a new vegetable soup. It didn't hurt that Alanna had marked it as a favorite recipe and named it as the best soup on her blog for January. Or that it's filled with fresh veggies and nutrient-rich cabbage. I decided to give it a try, with one little addition: I added a can of cannellini beans to turn this soup into a one-pot meal. I also increased the seasoning slightly because of the increased volume of the beans, but otherwise, this soup is exactly as Alanna posted it.
Garden Vegetable and Bean Soup
6 cups fat-free vegetable broth (but I used Imagine Un-Chicken broth)
cooking spray
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
4 teaspoons garlic (from a jar or substitute four cloves minced garlic)
1/2 cabbage, chopped
1/2 pound frozen green beans
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
generous grinding of black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 large zucchini, diced
1 19-ounce can (2 cups) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (may substitute Great Northern Beans or any white beans)
Sauté the carrots, onion and garlic in a large sprayed or non-stick pot for about 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the zucchini and cannellini beans and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to medium and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the beans are tender. Add the zucchini and cannellini and cook until the zucchini are tender.
Simple though it seems, this soup was wonderful. And--attention parents--it is kid-friendly! When I asked how she liked it, E. was so busy spooning it into her mouth that all she could do was give me a thumbs-up signal. She asked for a second bowl, and she's got leftovers in her thermos for lunch today.
Even with my addition of beans, Weight Watchers members and people following Eat to Live or the McDougall Program can enjoy this without guilt. I figure this as around 8 average-sized servings (three of us had 2 servings last night, and there were 2 servings left over for lunches today). Based on 8 servings, the nutritional breakdown, as close as I can figure it, is 86 Calories; trace Total Fat; (4% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 17g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 448mg Sodium; 5g fiber; 1 WW Point.
Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free diet
Labels: eat to live, gluten-free, Ridiculously Easy
posted by SusanV at 7:49 AM
6 Comments:
Wow! It LOOKS as good as it TASTES in your picture! Interesting that even with the addition of beans, it sticks at 1 Weight Watchers point a serving. So glad it worked for you and E!! Alanna
Another beautiful dish! Don't you just love veggie & bean soup? Life is good. :-)
It's about the same as the recipe I've been using. Only difference is I liquidize half the mixture then add it back for a thicker texture. I found this by googling a colrie search and am SO pleased to discover this site.
This sounds SO easy and SO good and zucchinis are on sale (so if you have other GF zucchini recipes, please post!). I plan to substitute kale for cabbage to make it more seasonal and to use fresh green beans or haricots verts. I might add a few chunks of celery root too - bring on the veges!
By the way, on my jar of minced garlic, it says that 1/2 a tsp is equal to one clove. However, I have stopped using jarred minced garlic or mincing garlic - I now take the peal off, cut it into thirds or so, and using a garlic press and it comes out fine and nice without as much work (or super-smelly fingers).
~M
I'm confused by some these recipe instructions. After sauteing the carrots, onions, and garlic, you write to add all remaining ingredients except the zucchini and beans and bring to a boil. But the next sentence says to simmer for 15 minutes, until the beans are tender. When am I supposed to add the beans? Then it says it cook the beans and zucchini until the zucchini are tender? When do I add the zucchini, what heat do I use, should I keep the pot covered, and how long should this take? Thanks, Susan!
It does sound a little confusing, but when I say "cook until the beans are tender," I'm referring to the green beans, which should take about 15 minutes. After that, you add the zucchini and the cannelini beans (which are already cooked, so they're already tender). It won't take long for the zucchini to get tender--from 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how soft you like your zucchini. If you keep the pot covered, they will cook faster, so I suggest doing that. Turn the heat as high or low as you need to keep it at a steady simmer.
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