Did I tell you I got a new cookbook? No? Well, I did. And I'm loving it!
About a month ago I ordered Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. If that name sounds familiar it may be because I've also got her Veganomicon cookbook and have posted my experiences with some of those recipes too.
**Full disclosure: I work for the parent publishing company that also handles Appetite for Reduction, but I paid full price for it. Well, I paid Amazon price for it. Which was just stupid, because if I had ordered it through work I would have gotten it for half price. What I'm trying to say is that I'm not getting paid or compensated in any way to shill for this book.
Although Moskowitz is a vegan, I am not, so I do not adhere to a strict vegan interpretation when cooking her recipes, but I love how she approaches veggies. Meat is now an afterthought at mealtime, and more often than not, we end up going meatless.
I've tried 8 recipes from Appetite for Reduction so far and we have loved all of them. Well, love might be a bit strong for the Yam and Black Bean Soup with Orange and Cilantro; but it was tasty and I would make it again. One thing I appreciate about Appetite over Veganomicon is that the recipes are decidedly healthier in Appetite (almost all of them come in under 400 calories) and all of the recipes include basic nutritional information, which was lacking in Veganomicon.
Anyhow, I tried this recipe a couple weeks ago just as the weather was beginning to warm up again. I ladled out about a cup of soup into each of our bowls and we sat down to dinner. Given my past experiences with Moskowotz's recipes, I don't know why I thought this soup was going to be "meh," but as soon as we took our first bite both of us knew we would want a second helping. It's. That. Good!
So I'm stoked to make this again. And, it only takes about 30 minutes to pull together! Which is another thing I appreciate about Appetite, a lot of the recipes can be on the table in 30–45 minutes. Some recipes require more time, but a lot of it is hands-off time. Anyhow, let's get our soup on!
Oh-so-yummy Tortilla Soup!
Tortilla Soup
Prep time:15 minutes
Total time:30 minutes
Servings:6 servings
Ingredients
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 jalapeños, seeded and sliced thinly
- 1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped into ½-inch pieces
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 28-oz can of diced tomatoes
- 24 oz of broth (I use chicken)
- 4 oz tortilla chips (about 2 cups)
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin
- 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup frozen corn
- ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- juice from 1 lime
- 1 ripe avocado, pitted and sliced
Directions
- Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium-high heat. Sauté onions, jalapeños, and poblano in about 5 minutes, or until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt, and sauté for another minute.
- Add the tomatoes (with liquid) and broth to the pot. Mix in the cumin and crush 2 ounces of the tortilla chips into little pieces and crumbs and add that to the pot.
- Cover and bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer, add the beans, corn, and cilantro, and let simmer for another 5 minutes.
- Add the lime juice and taste for salt. Ladle into bowls, crumble remaining tortilla chips over the top and garnish with cilantro and avocado slices.
The original recipe called for whole tomatoes and sliced onions, but Scoob doesn't like onions, but I can sneak them past him when they're chopped small enough, and I cannot handle the texture of large chunks of cooked tomato, hence the diced onion and tomato. I also swapped chicken broth for vegetable, black beans for pinto, and the avocado is all mine. It isn't pictured above because I didn't think of it until we had the leftovers, but it was yummy!
So without my alterations, this recipe has 270 calories, 50g carbs, 10g fiber, 12g protein, 0 cholesterol, and 820mg sodium. I'm going to ease up on the salt a little tonight because we do try to be as low sodium as we can here with Scoob's blood pressure.
You can impact the salt making your own stock and beans. I make 2lbs of dried black beans at a time and then freeze. I also just learned to make stock in my crockpot. I toss in a chicken carcass, onion, bay leave, celery, carrot then fill with water. Leave it on low all night long and lovely stock in the morning. MUCH easier than cooking a monster batch in my 20qt stock pot. :D I freeze this stuff, too. So far the only canned no sodium added tomato product I've found is tomato sauce. But if you swap the other stuff you can seriously cut your sodium and can still use the diced tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteOh I like the texture of the beans better with not overnight soaking. And I just requested this cookbook from the library to cruise through. David's been eating lots of salad lately, but I think that's going to get old soon :D
Delete