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After indulging in all the rich holiday food and drink, lighter food is just what's needed to help restore balance for the new year.
If your New Year's resolution includes committing to healthier eating habits, then these two soup ideas will start you on the right track. I think everyone agrees that eating more fruits and vegetables is the way to go.
I'm sharing two low fat roasted vegetable soups that are light in calories yet rich tasting. I call them quick soups because they are very dependent on the pre-made vegetable broth for flavor.
Both soups are extremely easy to make and both are warming, healthy, and comforting.
Key To Making A Tasty Quick Soup
The key to any quick (plant-based) soup is a good tasting vegetable broth. Personally, my favorite store bought vegetable broth is Tabatchnicks vegetable broth, but you may have found other brands that taste really good too or you may make your own.
I would love if you shared your favorite vegetable broths brand in the comments at the end of this post. Or if you make your own vegetable broth, share a link to your recipe.
One more note- roasting brings out the sweetness of any vegetable especially carrots and cherry tomatoes! You will find that both carrots and tomatoes become very flavorful.
Easy Roasted Carrot Soup
This is a mild, rich tasting, light soup that is a perfect starter for a brunch or a soup and salad meal. Serves 4.
Ingredients:
4 cups of sliced carrots, roasted
1 cup of thickly sliced yellow onion, sautéed
4 cups of Tabatchnick (or any brand) vegetable broth
Salt, black cracked pepper, garlic powder
optional: cumin to taste
Directions:
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Cover two separate cookie sheets with parchment paper. Lay the sliced carrots on one cookie sheet and the onions on another. (I changed it- sauté the onions for a better flavor)
I toss my vegetables in aquafaba (the liquid from cooked or canned chickpeas) to eliminate using oil. If you prefer to use oil, lightly spray the vegetables with oil. Season with the salt, cracked pepper, and garlic powder.
Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes, checking frequently to make sure the onions don't burn.
When vegetables are roasted, allow them to cool for about 15 minutes. Remove from the cookie sheet, add to a blender, add the vegetable broth and blend until smooth. Add cumin if desired.
Easy Roasted Cherry Tomato Soup
Serves 4
Cherry tomatoes come in all shapes and sizes. There are grape tomatoes, multi colored cherry type tomatoes from Canada, yellow cherry tomatoes etc. For this soup, I used 2 pints of the multi- colored tomatoes from Canada with orange colors, reds, and greens.
I have childhood memories warming up to a bowl of delicious tomato soup in the winter. And how can we forget the Campbell's soup commercials for tomato soup! ( Campbells tomato soup is : M'm M'm Good!)
Do you remember this commercial ?
Don't get me wrong, my homemade tomato soup is not a copy of the Campbells soup recipe.
Ingredients:
2 pints of cherry tomatoes, washed, halved, and roasted
Salt, black cracked pepper, garlic powder
4 cups of Tabatchnicks or any vegetable broth
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Cover a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Lay the halved cherry tomatoes on the cookie sheet. ( I toss them in aquafaba- the liquid from cooked or canned chickpeas) or you can spray them with oil. Season with the seasonings.
Roast for 20 minutes or until cherry tomatoes are roasted. Check to prevent burning.
When roasted, remove from the oven, and allow to cool for about 15 minutes. Add to a saucepan with the vegetable broth. Using an immersion blender, blend until completely blended.
Using a large fine mesh hand colander, strain to remove bits of skin and seeds. When I strain it, I use a large spoon to keep stirring the thick liquid around in the colander.
When strained return to the saucepan and heat slightly and serve. Garnish with watercress or broccoli sprouts.
Happy New Year to all of my readers and I hope all of your wishes are fulfilled this year- so think big!
