Soup has healing powers, or so they say, working wonders for the body and spirit. Author Judith Barrett says it also is an ideal meal if you are counting calories and grams of fat. When she decided to shed some pounds, she found the appeal of healthy ingredients in soup to be part of a sensible eating plan. Soup is a popular and flexible choice to keep you filled up, but guilt free.
In the mail yesterday, I must have received 8 or 10 magazines that screamed on the front cover - Lose weight in the new year! Do this exercise! Eat this- don't eat that! and so on, ad nauseam. It happens every January, then by the next issue, everything is chocolate for Valentine's Day, then Easter eggs, then Shamrock shakes, and in the blink of an eye, it's Halloween and it all starts again. But Judith says soup will save you.
Soup became the pillar of Judith's eating plan to lose weight. A balanced diet low in fat and calories with sensible exercise can be a good way to live each day. Low fat soups filled with fresh ingredients can be created without compromising taste or texture. The world loves soup - the French have potage, Italians have zuppa and brodo (broth); Asia has miso and dashi, and Vietnam's noodle soups (pho). Don't forget gazpacho, pozole, dal shorba, and borscht. Drawing upon this vast gastronomic diversity, there isn't any soup that can't be made delicious and healthful.
The soups in this book are as low in calories and fat as possible, without compromising flavor. Oil is kept to a minimum, broths are homemade, and nonfat yogurt and sour cream are used in place of calorie and fat- laden cream. The recipes range from an elegant vegetable consomme with angel hair pasta and spinach chiffonade, to a hearty Ligurian minestrone. Bean soups include a lemony chickpea with escarole, a lentil and portobello mushroom, and a fava bean with Swiss chard. Seafood soups like a creamy fennel with shrimp, or a puree of leek and celery root with crabmeat and dill will forever keep you away from even thinking about having a hamburger and fries. There is chapter after chapter of some of the most amazing soups you could ever want on a cold winter's day or a sweltering July afternoon. I heard Dr. Oz say on one of his shows that he enjoys a healthy soup every day for lunch and it keeps him going all day with his crazy schedule.
The weatherman here in Chicago says that we are supposed to get from 4 to 6 inches of snow today and tonight. Sounds like a soup day to me. My husband just split some logs for the fireplace yesterday, and all it needs is a cup of warm soup to hold while gazing at the crackly fire. Good thing the soups are low in fat and calories because s'mores sound pretty good, too...
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