About 6 months ago I started making this soup. It's part of the Sacred Heart Soup Diet, and a bunch of us tried it just to see if it worked (none of us made it the entire week ) It was OK soup, and it occurred to me that this was a great base for veggie soup that I could tweak into something very healthy and pretty tasty. I cook a giant pot of soup and then put it in a couple of big tupperware type containers and eat a bowl a day as one of my 5 small meals a day. I recently added the 2 chicken breasts for some protein. 2 large cans of diced tomatoes 1 bunch green onions 1 medium white onion 2 large can/boxes of beef broth (no fat) 1 bunch of celery 1.5 lbs fresh green beans 2 lbs. Carrots 3 Green Peppers 4 Jalepenos (2 w/o seeds) 1 bunch parsley 1 bunch cilantro 1 package posemary 1 package thyme 1 bulb garlic 2 grilled chicken breasts 1 spoon Vietnamese chili garlic sauce Simple recipe - just cut everything up tiny, add to pot, cook for a while and you get soup. I'd like to know what I could add for a little more....I don't know....zing? punch? pop? I eat the soup cold and I love veggies, so it's pretty good, but somewhat bland and thin. I'd like to get some more flavor, and maybe some more body to the broth. Only caveat is that it can't add fat, carbs or sugar.
make your own beef broth...I mean we're talking tons of soup bones boiled or put in a pressure cooker till it's given its all. That will give your soup some punch. To make it more Asian/Vietnamese/Thai tasting, drop the thyme and rosemary, and add some lemongrass. Or with your original recipe try adding some grains.
I would think that in that particular soup, chicken or vegetable broth would be way better than beef.
Like others have said, I would think salt. That's going to be most effective at improving the blandness. To get more body I would normally say to add beans, but that would give you carbs. But, an ounce of red beans has 5 g of carbs and 2 g of fiber, so only 3 g of net carbs. You could also use tomato paste to add some richness and body, but that gives you some sugar. Mushrooms could add some depth and mouth feel to the soup and give you the Japanese umami taste (which I still don't understand, anyone?). It looks like your soup has a lot of carrots and green pepper, both of which I would think have a fair amount of sugar. Maybe you could cut back on these and replace than with some greens, like spinach, mustard or collard. This would give you more fiber (I'm a big fan) and free up some wiggle room on the sugar/carb thing. If none of that helps, just throw in a couple pounds of bacon.
Bobb - those are good suggestions. I am just trying to avoid blatant sugar and carb additions - I can live w/ minimal additions, especially if it's for signifigant flavor addition! I know a lot of soups have certain thickeners that don't help keep you skinny.
Soy Sauce Worcestershire Sauce Tabasco Lemon Pepper Mrs. Dash Any or all of those are pretty good at adding some good flavor.
I'm thinking chicken base instead of beef broth and adding cumin/comino, cracked black pepper, and sea salt. Corn Starch is an excellent thickener for soups & stews, but it has about 7 grams of carbs per tablespoon. The good thing is it doesn't take a lot to do the job. I have heard of people using soy flour as a thickener, but I have never tried it.
Alright....Hornfans comes through again!!!! Just finished a batch and it's freaking DELICIOUS!!! I used the tomato paste and red beans idea, bumped up my salt and pepper (about 1 TBSP ea), added a chicken breast, a 1/2 cup of Worcestershire and 2 more cloves of garlic. Used chicken broth instead of beef also. No rosemary or thyme either. Just forgot them, but now I won't use them again. I also measured pretty specifically so I could get an idea of the nutritional value. Here's what I came up w/ per bowl: 234 calories 38 grams of carbs 24 grams of protein 0 grams of fat (3 grams of fat total, so about 0.2 g fat/bowl) Beans and tomato paste did EXACTLY what I was looking for. You guys rock!
Is this soup to serve to your little brother before his wedding? . Could you repost the final receipe? The cook-a-huge-pot-of-something is a great strategy for those of us who work from the house, too - keeps me from snacking on crap. I'd love to give this a shot.
Add more cilantro. You may want to throw a handful of cumin in as well..some salt is a plus or use SPIKE. Also add some Tabasco, as someone else mentioned. Lastly, go to the grocery store and buy a tin of Old Bay Seasoning. Old Bay is the ultimate addition to ANY dish. I use it in all my soups and stews and my gumbo. Just experiment--Celery Salt may be a good thing too.
2 cups red beans (dry) I used the dry beans and soaked them overnight, then cooked them in the morning. Threw in a fingerful of diced garlic and a squeeze of honey (what do I know? I was just experimenting). I thought I cooked them too long (just over 1.5 hours), but they turned out pretty good. I'll pay a bit more attention next time and try to get them a bit more firm. These can cook while you cut (and cut and cut) the rest of the ingredients. 1 bunch green onions 1 medium white onion 4 Jalepenos (2 w/o seeds) 3 bulbs garlic 1 bunch parsley 1 bunch cilantro 1 TBSP sea salt 1 TBSP ground pepper 1/2 cup Worcestershire I cut the onions up into about as small as one can dice them (simply slice the green ones). The garlic and japs I used a food processor (a cheap late night mail order one) and it kind of turned both into mush, which I actually didn't mind - still tastes the same. I put a bit of olive oil in the bottom of the pot and put all the above in at once. Trying to brown up the onions a bit and it just starts all the seasonings at once. 1 bunch of celery 1.5 lbs fresh green beans 2 lbs. carrots 3 green peppers Again, dice or slice into pretty tiny pieces. The first time I made this stuff I didn't cut small enough and there's too many different ingredients for you to get enough in a bite. After the onions have browned a bit, I add the carrots first, let them soften a bit and then add the rest - green beens last. I have no idea if this serves the purpose I think it does, but it works for me. 2 large can/boxes of chicken broth (no fat) (32oz ea) 4 cans tomato paste (6oz ea) Add the broth. Add the paste, stir it all up to smooth out the paste a bit. 2 large cans of diced tomatoes (28oz ea) 3 grilled chicken breasts Add the tomatoes, then the chicken breasts, then the red beans (drained). I let it simmer for an hour or so, take it off the heat and let it cool for a bit and then use a bowl to scoop it all into my containers. In regards to the suggestions about Tabasco - this is plenty hot for my taste, thankyouverymuch! And about roasting fresh tomatoes in the oven - plenty of tomatoes already and with all the prep work involved already, that's a step I'm not willing to take! Like I said, I eat a bowl of this a day as part of a change in eating habits (5 small meals a day, roughly 3 hours apart). I really like the fact that it's healthy as all get out. Only downer is it does take forever to prep and make. If you guys do make this, please post and let me know what changes you have made and how it turned out. Good luck!
