Post Holiday Cleanse

Whew! The holidays have come and gone in a frenzy and a blur.  I'm sure everyone has been crazed and busy, like myself. 

Although, the holidays are often our favorite time of year, they tend to leave us feeling less light on our toes.  The look of horror shows on my face as I take a moment to remember each and every cookie, chocolate covered pretzel, buttered roll, and cheese covered hors d' oeuvre that found its way into my mouth in the past few weeks!  Yikes!

Well, all the social gatherings have passed.  I am back to work and now its time to get back on track.  The perfect solution...vegetable soup!

A hearty dose of vegetable soup is the best way to initiate a cleanse, jump start some weight loss, incorporate extra fiber into your day, or just eat something plain delicious!! A big steaming bowl of vegetable soup is soul warming during these winter months.  The trick is to make it extra tasty so you are looking forward to consuming it and not giving it the stink eye like a big, daunting bowl of raw spinach. 

You can put absolutely any vegetables you desire into this soup.  This is also an excellent way to put all the produce in your fridge to good use.  For this particular batch, I used:

• tomatoes
• onion
• garlic
• radishes
• celery
• carrots
• green beans
• kale
• zucchini
• mushrooms

Other excellent choices would be peppers, squash, parsnips, cabbage, bok choy, snow peas or whatever your heart desires. 

It does take a fair amount of prep work to clean and chop everything up for soup.  Try to keep everything around the same size so it cooks evenly and fits nicely in a spoon. 

The important thing to remember here is to start with the veggies that need to cook longer, such as carrots, and add in the quick cooking ones last, such as kale.

The first step is to get a BIG soup or stock pot and heat up around 4 tablespoons of vegetable or olive oil.  Stir in minced onion and garlic.  Next add in extra firm veggies like carrots and parsnips, then celery and radish, then green beans, then tomatoes and zucchini and so on, and lastly quick cooking leafy things like cabbage, or kale.  Saute everything for a minute or two in between additions. 

Stir in 1 small can of tomato sauce, and 1 small can of tomato paste. Add in one can of drained beans. (I used kidney)  Cover with chicken or vegetable broth (around 2 boxes).  Sprinkle in salt and pepper and 1 tsp. each of dried herbs such a coriander, basil, and oregano.  Bring to a boil, and reduce to simmer. 

In a separate pan, cook up some of your favorite mini soup pasta.  I chose ditalini, but orzo, mini shells, macaroni, or alphabet letters would work perfectly.

As an optional garnish, you can make some fresh croutons.  Dice up your bread of choice, and toss in a bowl with salt, pepper, garlic powder, olive oil, and dried basil and oregano.  Lay out on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 until golden.

Allow the soup to simmer for about 15 - 20 minutes and stir in the cooked pasta.  Serve hot and garnish with a few croutons and a sprinkle of cheese such as feta or Parmesan.

Replace 1 - 2 meals a day with this veggie soup and you'll shed a few lbs. in a week!  The extra fiber will definitely get your GI tract moving as well so be prepared for the cleanse.  This soup will help you eat the rainbow with ease and the beans ensure protein. 

I love to whip this up 2 to 3 times a year to get things moving in the right direction!  It is delicoius, and, of course, nutritious!