Drinking your veggies? Absolutely!
Nov. 22, 2011 12:22 pm
Updated: Nov. 22, 2011 1:21 pm
While my mom was visitng us, I had occasion to eat at an Irish Pub for lunch while we were on our way to see one sight or another. Now, a pub is not a place you generally find lots of "healthy" food choices, so as I focused on the salad choices, I also
asked about the soup choices. The waiter mentioned some of the usual fare, but then also mentioned a Creamy Red Bell Pepper soup. Now, I knew that it wouldn't be super healthy, because most creamy soups are heavy in fat content from the liberal use of cream
and butter, but it was different, and so I had a salad with the soup. Let me say, OMG! I have never had a soup made from bell peppers that tasted sooooo good! I scarfed it down and found myself quite full and very satisfied after the meal.
I could not get this soup out of my mind, and as such, I searched for something that sounded similar on AR. Fortunately, I was successful, finding
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/red-pepper-soup/detail.aspx< . Obviously, as is, the recipe is quite tasty, but since I am working to eat healthier, I did tweak it a bit. Instead of the heavy
cream, I substituted half as much half n half and a like amount of lowfat milk. I think you could easily just use half n half and this would remain a pretty healthy bowl and would be more rich. One thing I will note -- when done, this soup is quite sweet,
too sweet for my personal tastes. To balance out the sweetness, simply add some salt, and if you want a little kick to it some cayenne is a good addition.
It so happened, that I had agreed to assist in providing lunch at my church for a holiday decorating day. Expecting about 50 people in total, and wanting to provide a variety of choices for people, I had already intended on chili as well as a good old-fashioned
chicken noodle soup, but was looking for a third soup. Something different, something tasty, something that people likely had never tried. And here it was! I made enough of this for that event and froze it until that day. The responses from people who tried
it was fabulous. All the soups/chili was a hit, and while I came with close to 80 cups worth of soups, I was going home with barely 10 cups in total.
For those curious souls that are also using WW for a weight loss/maintenance plan, this creamy red bell pepper soup is only 2 points. On par with many of the "fat burning" soups that you will find on their recipe site. I have frozen a couple of bowls of this,
which I will bring in as part of lunch in the near future.
I would encourage you, unless you are allergic to the ingredients, give it a try because it will surprise you! And don't be afraid to tweak it with salt and spices to your personal tastes -- I did, and it made a huge difference to me and others.
Happy and Healthy Eating!
