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Rainbow Soup Month: Creamy Asparagus and White Bean Soup

Creamy Asparagus and White Bean Soup by Cathy Elton of What Would Cathy Eat

This delicious green soup was provided to Seriously Soupy by Cathy Elton of What Would Cathy Eat. A fellow-Brooklynite, Cathy created a savory green soup for Rainbow Soup Month. For additional recipes by Cathy - not to mention a place to look at gorgeous food photography, please visit www.whatwouldcathyeat.com.

Guest Post by Cathy Elton

I wanted to make a creamy asparagus soup, but health issues prevent me from using cream. Nonfat Greek yogurt was a great alternative, but wanted to add another layer of flavor, so I tossed in some white beans on a whim. A brilliant idea, if I don’t say so myself! The beans make the soup more substantial, and add fiber and protein – taking this beyond your run-of-the-mill cream of asparagus soup.

Recipe Notes:

• Be sure to use a blender rather than a food processor. You’ll get a much more velvety texture.
• Instead of thyme, you could use another fresh herb. I think tarragon would be particularly nice in this soup.   

 

Creamy Asparagus and White Bean Soup
Ingredients:  

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound asparagus, (tough ends broken off and discarded), cut into ½-inch pieces
½ cup dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc
5 cups vegetable broth
1 15-ounce can navy or cannellini beans, drained
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
¼ cup roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
½ cup nonfat Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Pinch of white pepper (or substitute black pepper)
Salt to taste

Directions:
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large heavy pot or dutch oven. Add the onion and garlic and sautée until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the asparagus and cook another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the wine, broth, beans, thyme and parsley. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Puree in a blender until very smooth. Return to the pot, reheat and season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and whisk in the yogurt, followed by the lemon juice.

Serves 3-4 

Rainbow Soup Month: Corn and Crab Bisque

Corn and Crab Bisque - Seriously Soupy

For this weeks Rainbow Soup, I created a yellowish soup using corn, a yellow pepper, and some yellow squash. I wanted this one to be more than vegetables so I added in some crab cakes from Trader Joe's (but any light fish would work) as well as various herbs (tarragon, garlic, red pepper flakes and bay leaves). For the base, I used garlic broth (also used in this recipe from Food 2), which really gave this yellowish soupy a nice and silky taste. Since there was no cream, I used a small amount of water and finished it with some lemon juice - creating quite the delicious (and easy) spring soup. Enjoy!

Garlic Broth

Ingredients:
5 cups water
10 cloves of garlic, peeled
6-8 leaves fresh basil
6-8 leaves fresh sage
6-8 sprigs lemon thyme
6-8 sprigs fresh rosemary
3-5 bay leaves
Salt and pepper, to taste


Directions:
Pour the water into a medium-sized pot and bring to a boil. Add garlic cloves and fresh herbs. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for about 30 minutes, tasting occasionally. Season with salt and pepper. Drain solids from the broth, and discard or save for another use. 

  

Rainbow Soup Month: Corn and Crab Bisque

Ingredients: 
2-3 cups of garlic broth (or vegetable broth) 
2 ears of corn, shucked 
1/2 yellow squash, cut up 
1 yellow onion, cut up 
1/2 yellow pepper, cut up 
drizzle of olive oil 
1/4 teaspoon of tarragon 
2-3 cloves of garlic minced  

3-4 dried bay leaves  
1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes  
2 crab cakes - I used the Maryland crab cakes from Trader Joe's   
1 tablespoon of lemon juice or whole lemon 

Directions:
Cut up the onions, pepper, squash and shuck the corn. Place them in a oil and let them marinade with olive oil, salt, pepper, bay leaves and lemon. Bring broth to a low boil and add the ingredients from the bowl to the pot. Add some tarragon, garlic, red pepper flakes and cover. Let cook for 20 minutes - checking on the soup periodically. Add the crab meat (or fish) and cover. Cook for another 15 minutes. Turn off the flame and blend the ingredients - (I made my soup semi-chunky). Taste with some salt and pepper and enjoy!


Seriously Soupy Serena

MyCityCuisine.org is Looking for Contributors

MyCityCuisine.org, a Wiki project, is currently looking for contributors for its new site. The project is designed  to create a free, reliable and up-to-date guide of the most original and tasty traditional foods from different countries of the world. This will help travelers discover local foods from all over the world, raise cultural awareness and preserve traditions in a world that's constantly changing.

Contributors should have basic knowledge of the dish that they are writing about in order to help readers make an intelligent decision on whether they want to try it or not, but they don't necessarily want to know how the dish can be prepared. MyCityCuisine.org is not a recipe website so recipe writing is not necessary.

Interested applicants should follow the guidelines on the MyCityCuisine page, http://www.mycitycuisine.org/wiki/Find_out_how#Which_Dishes_To_Add


For additional information about this exciting project, please visit: http://www.mycitycuisine.org/index.php/Main_Page
 

Review and a Giveaway of Tabatchnick's Soup Singles

Tabatchnick's Vegetable Soup

As you can tell, I love making my own soups and testing out new recipes. But there are times when it's nice to not to plan, chop or cook where I can sit back and simply enjoy other people's soup recipes. I recently had the opportunity to take a brief break from my soup-making adventures to test out Tabatchnick's unique line of convenient Soup Singles.

A family-owned company since 1905, all soups made by Tabatchnick are created in small batches using high-quality ingredients and filtered water that are also Kosher and BPA-free. After quickly heating up the soup (I used the stove top method - but the soups can also be microwaved or heated in an oven), my vegetable soup single, made with lima beans, green beans, corn, onions, tomatoes, peas, carrots and barley, was ready in less than 10 minutes and smelled pretty incredible. As an alternative to cooking at home, the soup had a fresh and creamy taste (although there was no cream) with a rich and hearty vegetable broth. This was something completely different from canned and other frozen soups that I have tried in the past, but rather, the Tabatchnick line was enjoyable and provided a perfect portion-size for my lunch. After further inspecting the nutritional information, I was also happy to see that the line wasn't high in sodium and sugar (which many commercial soups are) and contained water and vegetables as the primary ingredients - as opposed to artificial additives, salt, and sugar.

Soup Singles also includes Minestrone Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup, Split Pea, Barley and Mushroom, Vegetarian Chili, Southwest Bean, and Tomato and Rice that are available in most grocers.

The Giveaway:
Want to try these soups for yourself?

1. Fan Seriously Soupy on Twitter.

2. Tell me in the comments section what soups from the Tabatchnick-line you would like to try.

One winner will receive 3 coupons for Soup Singles by Tabatchnick (in the NY-NJ metro area) or coupons for general Tabatchnick products (winners outside of those areas) and an apron.

The winner will be chosen randomly on June 2nd! Good Luck!