By Laura Holland
We try to have a hearty vegetable soup at least once a week. With crusty whole-grain bread and a salad, it is an easy, healthy supper that my family loves.
Rich in vegetables, beans and whole grains, these soups are inexpensive, filling, high in fiber and vitamins, low in calories, and kid-friendly, too. Vegetables that my son would normally reject are happily gobbled up by the steaming bowlful.
One of my favorite soups is Red Lentil and Vegetable Soup, from Good Housekeeping Magazine. It is colorful, nutritious and fast to make. You can throw it together in fifteen minutes and have it on the table in another 10 minutes.
Another favorite supper at my house is the classic combo of grilled cheese sandwiches and cream of tomato soup. Making the cream of tomato soup from scratch is really easy and makes a huge difference.
Are you in the mood for a creamy tomato soup that is over-the-top decadent? Then head over to The Pioneer Women Cooks for her Sherried Tomato Soup. Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond cleverly uses a bottle of tomato juice and canned tomatoes for her base. She serves the soup with fabulous buttered herb bread.
I made an alcohol-free lower fat version of Ree’s soup that my family went crazy over. My husband now insists that we have a large bottle of tomato juice in the house at all times so that we can have this soup.
Creamy Tomato Soup
loosely adapted from Ree Drummond
2-4 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, minced
3 cups bottled tomato juice (half of a 46 ounce bottle)
14 ounces canned diced tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar, or to taste
12 ounces evaporated milk
Sauté diced onions in butter until translucent. Add canned tomatoes and tomato juice. Season the soup to taste with sugar, salt, and black pepper. Bring the soup to a simmer. Add in evaporated milk and stir. Adjust the seasoning and serve.
Note: This soup is somewhat chunky. If you like a smooth soup, puree the soup with an immersion blender.
Extra: If you want to make a cream of tomato soup without the cream, Cook’s Illustrated magazine has the solution: bread! Pureed with the tomatoes, white sandwich bread nicely thickens the soup. Fans of Italian cuisine will recognize this as a riff on the classic soup Pappa al Pomodoro.
Most Cook's Illustrated recipes are only available through subscription, but a copy of their Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup recipe is at the Viva Towels web site.
Second extra: instead of the classic grilled cheese, try serving quesadillas with the tomato soup for a Mexican twist.
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