Many, many years ago, my mom, brother, Teta Anna and myself went out to a Chinese restaurant in Flint-my dad was working nights at the restaurant-on Bristol and Center roads. The server asked us if we wanted soup or juice-not sure what kind of juice was offered as an option to juice, speaking very quickly and Teta Anna, always very quick witted said, “SUPER JUICE! What’s that?!” We all laughed, including the server and as I was making this yesterday and typing this up I thought of that story and titled this soup A “Super Vegetable Soup” and here’s why. There is a healthy vegetable ‘cream’ soup in my book, “Healthy Cream of Butternut Squash Soup” it has no cream in it. This one does not either, but what makes it “Super” is that it is not only lacking cream, making it healthy as it doesn’t have the fat from cream, it is a soup with protein in it from white kidney beans and a low fat (I would not use a fat free) cottage cheese, and it has a smooth creamy texture.
While the vegetables were roasting in the oven, I made a round loaf of Homemade Rustic Bread-also here on the website. This is a great soup to make on the weekend, like I did, and keep on hand in the fridge in the winter, especially in January when we all are getting back into our regular routines of eating healthy. It’s filling, yet very healthy. It will be tonight’s menu for soup and grilled sandwiches. I might even toast up some croutons made with the Homemade Rustic Bread. Enjoy!!
Cutting vegetables into smaller pieces/cubes means a shorter roasting time…I got Homemade Rustic Bread (from the website) going right away…
Super Vegetable Creamy Soup Recipe
Ingredients
-4 vine ripe tomatoes, or your favorite variety of fresh tomatoes
-1 cup grape or mini tomatoes
-1 red pepper
-1 white onion (I had a shallot on hand so I used 1/2 white onion & 1 shallot)
-3 cloves garlic (roast in it’s outer layers, you will unpeel after roasted for most flavor)
-Butternut squash peeled and cut in cubes, I use all of the long neck of a squash.
-1 can white kidney beans or Cannellini beans, drained
-1 cup cottage cheese-I would any kind except fat free, I think it has less flavor.
-4 cup good water
-4 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon or your favorite vegetable or chicken bouillon/seasoning
-Olive Oil, Coarse salt, freshly ground black pepper for roasting and (Salt and pepper for seasoning when complete)
This is the “Better than Bouillon” product I use, you may have your own favorite product, use what you are most comfortable with, either a vegetable or poultry version. The steps of the recipe, from removing vegetables from the oven, scooping into the stock pot, peeling the garlic, the can of beans I used, blending, adding beans and cottage cheese.
Method
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and Cut up all vegetables in cubes and place in a baking dish, a Pyrex or other rectangular baking dish is appropriately sized. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until squash are softer when poked with a fork.
2. When vegetables have completed roasting time, remove from oven and scoop with a large serving spoon into a stock pot (you want a pot tall enough so if you are using an immersion blender you don’t make a mess when blending. You can also transfer to a blender but if you have an immersion blender, this is the easiest and least messy). Remove garlic from outer ‘skin’. I sometimes forget this and I am fishing through the vegetables in the stock pot for the garlic cloves. Add the 4 cups of water. This should cover the vegetables you have just scooped into the stock pot. If it does not, add a little more water to do so. Now add your bouillon and blend soup with your immersion blender or blend in a counter blender (if using a counter blender you would now transfer mixture to stock pot for remainder of recipe).
3. Add can of drained beans and 1 cup of cottage cheese and blend again until smooth. Heat nut do not boil, as this could cause cottage cheese to curd. You could add some chopped basil or rosemary or simply season with salt and pepper.
