Soups and Stews

Slow Cooker Recipe: Lower Fat Plant-Based Butternut Squash and Chickpea Coconut Curry

November 20, 2015 by Veronica Grace

Hey guys! I am still working with Iphone photos for now as my professional Canon camera was stolen and I don’t have funds to replace it yet so thank you for bearing with me. Phone pics are not as pretty for sure, but it will do in a pinch and you get the idea. Besides the food is way more delicious anyway, just make it and see.

With fall well underway and my pantry kind of overflowing in dried beans and lentils that I have been hoarding for way too long, I decided I need to start making recipes using up as much of my dried ingredients as possible. You do not want to know how many bags and bags of dried stuff I have. It’s kind of ridiculous for just 1 person, but I used to like having any ingredient at my finger tips when I got a craving for a new recipe.

It’s also extremely affordable to make plant-based/vegan slow cooker recipes using dried, canned and frozen ingredients, especially when a small amount of work can yield such delicious food and have lots of leftovers. So even though it’s just me, i don’t mind having leftovers of super delicious curries because I can just give away a few portions to hungry friends, and freeze some for easy meals when I’m too tired to cook. Plus why spend $5-7 on a single frozen vegan meal, when you can make a big batch of something a few times a month and freeze it yourself, right? Right.

Although I don’t have a slow cooker recipe book yet, I know it’s something that a few of you have been asking for. It does take some time since I can’t make several recipes a day using this method and crank them out for recipe testing. It’s a slower process, but convenient for people who are busy and really hate “active cooking time” i.e. standing at the stove and/or making a big mess and fitfully sobbing when you didn’t stir it enough and it ends up burned… I mean that doesn’t happen to me that often, but I understand not everyone WANTS to live in the kitchen making food day in and day out.

Any slow cooker you have laying around that is a standard size (not individual sized) will do for this recipe, I used my Ninja Cooking System because I could sauté the onions, garlic and ginger right in the cooking insert over the medium heat setting. I don’t like having extra dishes to do when I make slow cooker recipes, so I find this convenient for me and the thing I hate most about cooking is dishes honestly. If you haven’t signed up to my newsletter yet to stay up to date on new (and favourite free) recipes you can sign up in the pink box on the upper right hand side of the screen there too.

Plant-Based Butternut Squash & Chickpea Coconut Curry (Slow Cooker Recipe)

serves 8-10 side portions or a hungry family of 4-5

Ingredients:

1 medium butternut squash (about 5 cups) peeled, de-seeded and cubed
2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked 8 hours or overnight
1 medium onion, diced
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 inch chunk of ginger, minced
1 can 13.5 oz fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 can 13.5 ounce light coconut milk
3 cups/1 litre low sodium vegetable broth
2.5 tablespoons yellow curry powder
1 tsp sugar or honey
2 bay leaves
4 large handfuls of baby spinach or 1 bunch of fresh spinach, rinsed and roughly chopped
2 cups frozen sweet peas
1 teaspoon sea salt or to taste
handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

Directions:

1. Carefully cut the skin off the butternut squash, remove the seeds and cut into 1 inch cubes. To make cutting easier you can slice is in half and microwave the squash for 3 minutes and let cool before cutting.

2. *Optional step: sauté the onions, garlic and ginger in a pan with a little water or in the insert of a Ninja Cooking System.* Assemble all of the ingredients in your slow cooker excluding the peas, spinach, salt and cilantro. Cook on low for 8 hours.

3. About 20 minutes before serving, add in the fresh peas and spinach and stir until spinach is wilted.

4. Taste test and add salt as desired. For a slightly thicker sauce you can use a potato masher and mash some of the squash and chickpeas.

5. Serve over basmati rice and garnish with fresh cilantro. (I prepared 3 rice cups of basmati rice in my Zojirushi rice cooker)

Tips:

Dried chickpeas are best as they will absorb the flavor of the curry as they cook. Don’t use canned chickpeas and cook this for 8 hours as that’s completely unnecessary, 4-6 hours maximum as they’re already cooked.

The night before, sort and rinse the dried chickpeas in a strainer, place in a large bowl and cover with at least 6 cups of water. Alternatively you can do the Quick Soak Method: bring the rinsed chickpeas to a boil in a pot of water and cook for 1 minute and let soak for at least an hour. I find slow soaked chickpeas rather than quick soak chickpeas more tender when cooked, but it’s up to you.

For easy frozen meals later, freeze small portions of the curry and rice separately in tupperware containers.

Question: Have you started using your slow cooker yet this season? What’s your favorite recipe?

Missing Summer Already – Plant-Based Harvest Soup (Butternut Squash, Sweet Corn and White Beans)

September 15, 2014 by Veronica Grace 5 Comments

Ah summer… I think it’s everyone’s favourite month. (At least mine as it’s the sunniest/warmest time in Canada.) But now the weather is growing colder already and I can tell I’m missing the heat…. I was looking around the freezer the other day and wanted to make up something quick and healthy and I saw I had some bags of frozen butternut squash and some fresh corn. I decided to put it together with onions and broth and make a soup out of it, but it wasn’t thick enough so I thought, hey why don’t I try some white beans to add some bulk and cream it up? It turned out to be a great idea and a totally delicious combination. This soup doesn’t need any butter or cream to make it creamy and delicious, the white beans work perfectly. It also needs very little seasoning since it’s so sweet naturally from the sweet corn.

In fact you could even eat this soup without any of the seasonings at all, it would be a great soup for fussy children, or even a good choice for toddlers. Everyone knows children enjoy soft naturally sweet foods and butternut squash and corn is a favourite.

I decided to kick things up a bit with some smoked paprika which added a delicious smokey flavour to the soup. Smoked paprika isn’t of the spicy variety, but sweet so it adds some nice flavour without being spicy.

Summer sweet corn goes really well in almost any dish. It’s a great topping for salads, adds natural sweetness to soups and is great on it’s own, no seasonings required.

Give this soup a try! It’s super easy (especially if you have frozen squash already, available at most health food stores.)

Fat Free Vegan Summer Harvest Soup (Butternut Squash Sweet Corn and White Bean Soup)

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

4 cups/1 qt./946 mL vegetable broth (homemade or low sodium)
1 large sweet onion, diced (such as Vidalia or Walla Walla)
5 cloves of garlic, minced
6 cups/25 oz./1.5 lbs butternut squash, peeled and cubed (fresh or frozen)
2 1/2 cups sweet corn (fresh, frozen or canned – no sodium)
16 oz./453 g can white beans or chickpeas, drained
1/2 tsp smoked paprika (or any other seasoning of choice)
3/4 tsp Herbamare or salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Directions:

Sauté onions and garlic in a large pot over medium heat in 1/2 cup of vegetable broth until soft 5-6 minutes.
Add squash, corn and beans and remaining broth and cover. Cook until squash is tender.
Carefully spoon mixture into a Vitamix blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Pour mixture back into pot, add seasonings and mix thoroughly. Taste test and adjust seasonings if desired.

What do you think of this summer soup? Have you ever tried smoked paprika before?

Reader Recipe: Plant-Based “Cream” of Celery Soup (Vegan)

February 3, 2014 by Veronica Grace 11 Comments

Photo credit: digidreamgrafix FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I received a wonderful recipe last week from a fellow reader named Elke White who was so kind to share this with all of us. What’s great about this cream of celery soup recipe is that it is exactly like I would have designed myself! Simple, oil free, low in fat and using fresh ingredients. Making soups this way are super easy and a great way to use up extra veggies in the fridge, or just an inexpensive meal with leftovers you can save for later in the week.

The key to a low fat vegan creamy soup recipe is actually potatoes, they’re fat free and add some heartiness and creaminess to the soup without any need for oil or cream. If you desire a little more of a creamy texture you can use a few tablespoons of almond milk if you desire, but I think this soup is delicious as is.

Feel free to also use this recipe as a template for any cream of vegetable soup recipe, you can try different root vegetables and create all sorts of combinations!

Plant Based “Cream” of Celery Soup (Vegan)

by Elke White (a fellow reader of PlantBasedU)

Ingredients:

2 packs of celery (1 1/2 – 2 pounds)
3 large potatos, cooked and cubed
6 cups homemade vegetable broth or 4 cups Imagine No-Chicken broth and 2 cups water (do not use tomato based vegetable broth)
1 large onion, diced
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp dried thyme or 1 TBSP fresh
2 TBSP fresh parsley

Directions:

1. Peel the strings from the outer layer of celery ribs and discard. Dice remaining celery and set aside.
2. Sauté onions in water on high heat until clear, lower the heat and add salt, pepper, nutmeg, and thyme (add a little more water if needed, to keep spices from burning or sticking).
3. Add vegetable broth and celery, bring to boil, then add parsley and simmer (covered) for 30 minutes.
4. Add potatos and simmer for an additional 10-20 minutes or until all vegetables are soft enough to blend.
5. Use stick blender and blend until soup is creamy, or place a small amount at a time in a traditional blender and puree until smooth.

Variations:

You may also want to try adding 3 large diced carrots, or 2-3 leeks instead of the onion to switch up the flavours in this soup.

What’s your favorite cream of vegetable soup recipe? Have you ever made a vegan version before?

Spicy Plant-Based Potato and Chickpea Stew from SkinnyMs.com (Vegan)

January 14, 2014 by Veronica Grace

I have another great recipe to share with you from SkinnyMs.com that is right up your alley! Sometimes I just cannot decide what I would rather go for at night – potatoes or chickpeas… Well good news! This recipe has both so it’s hearty, filling yet still incredibly healthy and whole food based. Really you can’t go wrong and what’s even better is that is’s quick and easy to make.

I am still freezing my butt off in Canada and all I can think of is making warm easy meals that can do away with my chills. You know the ones you get when you spend all day working on your computer Although I looove having a slow cooker, sometimes I am just not that organized in the morning so having fast stove top recipes REALLY is a lifesaver. Just toss it together and voila! A one pot wonder!!

So now that I’ve got you all excited and hungry you have try this recipe and let me know what you think! P.S. Did I mention it’s gluten free as too

Spicy Plant-Based Potato and Chickpea Stew (Vegan)

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon curry powder, preferably hot
2 15 ounce cans diced tomatoes with juices (I use Muir Glen Organics)
2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed (you can also try yams or sweet potatoes!)
2 cups homemade vegetable broth (or low sodium)
2 15 ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Fresh chopped cilantro, for garnish

Stove top Directions: (Provided by LowFatVeganChef.com)

1. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions {and dry sauté or use a little water}. Cook until the onions are soft. Add the garlic and spices and cook for another minute until very fragrant.

2. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce to a medium heat and cook for 15-25 minutes (depending on the size of your potatoes) or just until the potatoes are tender.

3. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Garnish with cilantro.

Slow Cooker Directions: (Provided by SkinnyMs.com)

1. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions {and dry sauté or use a little water}. Cook until the onions are soft. Add the garlic and spices and cook for another minute until very fragrant.

2. Transfer this mixture to your slow cooker and add the rest of the ingredients. Cover and cook over low heat until potatoes are tender and slightly thickened.

3. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Serve topped with the chopped cilantro.

{This recipe was edited to omit the oil used in cooking to be in line with my reader’s preferences}

Thank you to SkinnyMs.com for allowing me to share this recipe with you!

Quick and Easy Plant-Based Mexican Black Bean Corn Soup (Vegan)

January 6, 2014 by Veronica Grace 17 Comments

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and happy new year! I cannot believe it’s 2014 now and it’s a new year here at Low Fat Vegan Chef. When the weather is cold and chilly I often like to make quick one pot meals as it’s not only warm and satisfying and makes for fewer dishes for me when all I really want to do is crawl under a blanket. This vegan black bean and corn soup recipe is SIMILAR to the one on my Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm ebook, but it is simpler and thus faster to make. Even if you have NEVER made soup before or feel like you are a novice in the kitchen (or even a terrible cook) I promise you can make this recipe.

I find it imperative to have simple hearty recipes like this on hand when I am low on ingredients or simply pressed for time and can’t make something more complicated from scratch.

Have you ever bought a store bought boxed or canned soup? Maybe now you choose those “organic” and “healthy” looking ones. Now have you ever tried them? I have to say unfortunately I have! While they may LOOK GOOD on the package, what’s inside is often so thin, watery, bland and boring it’s impossible to enjoy. In fact I usually end up tossing half of it because it’s so unappetizing.

My soup recipes are different! They have spices! Depth of flavor! Are heartier! And are actually something you’d want to make again and again. So that’s why I want to share this recipe with you, that even if you don’t have a lot of time, or money or know how to cook from scratch you CAN make something quickly that is infinitely better than what you’ll find at the store and it won’t cost you much to do so.

So check it out:

Quick and Easy Vegan Mexican Black Bean Corn Soup

This delicious soup is ready in no time and is packed full of flavour!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz. can roasted diced tomatoes (I use Muir Glen Organics)
1 15 oz. can black beans, low sodium or 1 2/3 cup fresh cooked (I use Eden Organics)
1 11 oz. can whole corn (low sodium AND sugar free or 1 cup frozen corn)
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth (low sodium or homemade)
1 tsp roasted cumin
1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder
1 tsp Herbamare or sea salt
2 tsp lime juice (1/2 small lime)
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Fresh cilantro or coriander to garnish

Directions:

1. In a large non stick wok, sauté the onions for 6-7 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and sauté another minute or two. Add a little water if needed to prevent sticking.

2. Add the vegetable broth, canned tomatoes, drained corn and black beans and stir. Add the seasonings except the lime juice and taste test. Adjust seasonings if desired.

3. Bring to a boil and then reduce to medium heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Add lime juice and stir.

5. Garnish with cilantro if desired and serve.

What’s your favorite pairing for plant-based black bean soup?

Quick Stovetop Plant-Based Black Bean Chilli (Vegan Recipe)

October 20, 2013 by Veronica Grace 15 Comments

This is a really tasty and easy chili that tastes like it’s been simmered for hours, but it’s ready in about 25 minutes! The secret is in using roasted or smoked spices and fire roasted tomatoes that make this vegan black bean chilli so good. My favorite fire roasted tomatoes are made by Muir Glen Organics. You can make this recipe in a slow cooker, but since the majority of the ingredients are already pre cooked there’s no reason to take all day creating this.

When you want a hot meal that’s comfort in a bowl, one pot meals are the way to go. I don’t like to make a big mess in the kitchen every night, so this is one of those recipes that gives me a break from dishes and is very easy to throw together when I’m short on time.

As always you can ensure your canned goods are BPA free by reading the label and choosing brands such as Muir Glen Organics or Eden Organics or making sure your cans do not have a white plastic lining in them as well. Another cost effective option is to simply stew your own tomatoes (and you can roast them in the over after) or cook your own dried beans from scratch. To make my own beans in a snap I use the Easy Bean Cooker and it does all the timing and cooking for me.

Quick Stovetop (Low Fat) Plant Based Black Bean Chilli Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 large onion, diced
6-8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 15 oz. cans of black beans, drained (or 4 cups fresh cooked beans)
28 oz. can regular or fire roasted crushed tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp roasted cumin
3/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
1 tsp sugar or sweetener
3/4 tsp herbamare or salt
fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a large non stick wok saute the onions for 6-8 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper and sauté for 5 more minutes stirring occasionally. Add water if necessary to keep from burning.

2. Add the tomatoes and drained beans and seasonings and heat through for about 15 minutes, until peppers are soft and flavores have melded.

3. Serve with brown rice, baked potatoes, bread or vegetables for a filling meal.

Variations:

If you want to add more veggies such as carrots or mushrooms you can add them with the onions and sauté them first, if you want to add some corn you can add them with the beans.

Ninja Cooking System Recipe: Vegan French Yellow Split Pea Soup (Slow Cooker)

February 18, 2013 by Veronica Grace 30 Comments

Back in August I attended the International Food Blogger Conference and attendees were able to secure a brand new Ninja Cooking System for free should they choose to try it. I was very interested because it’s not just a slow cooker, but you can use it for baking or stovetop cooking as well. So if you like to start off some of your soups, stews or roasts by sautéing and then turning on the slow cooker, you will love this kitchen gadget. It comes with a little cookbook in the box, but naturally none of the recipes are vegan. There is one “can be made vegetarian” lentil soup recipe in the book, but I tried it and was not impressed. (It uses chicken stock and cheese and I used vegetable stock and it was rather bland, naturally.)

So I decided to pull it out and make a vegan split pea soup. It is rather chilly in Calgary, Canada where I am and it sure makes the house smell delicious with soup cooking away all day. What’s nice about the Ninja Cooking System is that it has a non stick lightweight pan. So there’s no fear of food getting stuck to it making it hard to clean, or it being so heavy you might accidentally drop it and break it. It also has a handy digital timer for the low/high/buffet (keep warm) setting, and simply an on/off setting for the low/medium/high stovetop section.

Since I will be using it only for bean, lentil and soup recipes (and not roasts or meat stews) I will be playing around with it. But for my purposes it works just like a slow cooker so it’s very easy to use. Don’t be intimidated! Just select the setting you want by using the dial. Although I still have my regular slow cooker, I suppose I don’t need it anymore as the Ninja is quite convenient to use AND clean too. It also comes with a little metal pan for roasting/steaming/baking and a metal roasting rack.

If you’re interested in getting a Ninja Cooking System you can get it on Amazon here. I suspect it would also make a nice gift for that family member pressed on time, who likes to toss ingredients into the pot and “set it and forget it” until they come home from work for fast meals.

Although I’m not skilled in the art of French cooking (as they use butter, cream and meat predominantly) I still enjoy using some French ingredients and especially French herbs. Here’s my version of a simple and hearty Vegan French Split Pea Soup.

Vegan French Yellow Split Pea Soup (Slow Cooker)

Serves 8

Ingredients:

2 cups yellow split peas (rinsed and picked over)
8 cups vegetable broth (low sodium or homemade)
1 large sweet onion, or 2 small, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 celery ribs, diced
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
3 tsp Herbs de Provence (or a mix of rosemary, thyme, savory and/or basil)
3 small bay leaves
1 tsp Dijon mustard (do not use yellow mustard or spicy mustard)
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1/2 tsp Herbamare or salt (or to taste)

Directions:

Place ingredients into a slow cooker such as the Ninja or a pressure cooker.

Cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for 8-10 hours. Alternately you can cook it in a pressure cooker for about 7 minutes.

When split peas are at desired tenderness, mash or blend part of the soup for a creamier texture.

Add dijon mustard and stir and season to taste with Herbamare or salt and pepper.

Serve with whole wheat bread or over rice.

Additional Tips:

Make sure to use fresh split peas (meaning not ones sitting in your cupboard for the past year, and preferably not from a bulk bin). Using “old” split peas that have been through various temperatures and humidity can leave them hard and difficult to break down. You’ll know you had old peas if at the end of cooking time they are still rather hard and intact. No amount of cooking will soften them, you’ll just end up burning the bottom of the soup to the pot. (I have had this happen many times from bulk split peas) Pick up a fresh set of split peas for your soup recipe instead.

Because I cooked this in the Ninja some of the moisture escaped from the hole in the lid at the top, so my soup is really thick. If this happens to you, you can add a little more broth or water as needed for desired consistency and then season to taste.

Additionally you can add diced potatoes or other seasonings to this soup to mix it up.

Have you ever made split pea soup? What ingredients do you like to add?

Fat Free Vegan Slow Cooker Indian Dal Soup With Mixed Vegetables

June 25, 2012 by Veronica Grace 19 Comments

Here’s another deliciously easy and affordable fat free recipe that you and your family will love. It’s inspired from a delicious Indian soup from a local restaurant we like, and I tried to make my own version at home. It ended up tasting a little differently of course but still very delicious! It’s also very versatile and you can use any yellow split lentil like chana dal or toor dal. You can buy these lentils at ethnic markets, Indian markets or Amazon. Although these lentils look similar to yellow split peas, they are not the same, so this recipe will taste best if you use yellow split lentils instead of yellow split peas.

I really love using the slow cooker (aka Crock Pot) when I want to make something hearty but don’t have time to watch the stove, or when I’m making something that tends to take a long time to cook such as lentil and bean based dishes. It’s one of those appliances that I love using, but don’t use it all the time. Making a big batch of something in a crockpot is a great time saver when you’re looking for quick meals during the week.

If you or your family is new to Indian food, this is a really easy recipe to start with because it’s savory and mildly spiced without being too “exotic” for those not used to it.

Slow Cooker Indian Dal Soup With Mixed Vegetables

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 lb/454 g chana dal (split chickpeas) or toor dal (split yellow lentil)
2 medium onions, diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
15 oz/425 g diced tomatoes
4 cups/1 qt/~1 L vegetable broth (low sodium or homemade)
4-5 cups/1 qt/~1 L water or more vegetable broth (more or less to thin as desired)
2 tbsp cumin seed
1 tsp roasted coriander powder (or regular)
1/4 tsp tumeric powder
2 tsp black mustard seeds

After dal is done cooking add:
3 cups mixed frozen vegetables or other mixed diced vegetables
1 tsp roasted cumin
1-2 tbsp. sugar or sweetener (if desired)
3/4 tsp Herbamare or salt to taste
fresh ground pepper to taste
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped

Directions:

Pick over the dal/lentils and remove any discoloured ones or stones. Rinse thoroughly and drain.
Place ingredients into slow cooker, except for frozen vegetables and additional spices and cook on low 10 hours, or high 7-8 hours. You can also cook this overnight and add the additional vegetables and seasonings the next day.
When the lentils are soft and breaking apart, add the vegetables and seasonings and let cook for another 30 minutes or so. Taste test and adjust seasonings if necessary.
Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve!

Additional Tips:

I use a 6 quart family size slow cooker like this one because I like being able to set it on a timer, as soon as the timer stops it switches it to keep warm until you’re ready to serve, so it’s really handy.

You can also try yellow split peas, but it won’t really be an Indial dal, but more an Indian spiced split pea soup. You may need to add more water as well depending on how thick or thin you like your soup.

What’s your favourite meal to cook in the slow cooker?

Fat Free Vegan Summer Harvest Soup With Butternut Squash, Sweet Corn and White Beans

June 12, 2012 by Veronica Grace 15 Comments

Ah summer… I think it’s everyone’s favourite month. (At least mine as it’s the sunniest/warmest time in Canada.) I was looking around the freezer the other day and wanted to make up something quick and healthy and I saw I had some bags of frozen butternut squash and some fresh corn. I decided to put it together with onions and broth and make a soup out of it, but it wasn’t thick enough so I thought, hey why don’t I try some white beans to add some bulk and cream it up? It turned out to be a great idea and a totally delicious combination. This soup doesn’t need any butter or cream to make it creamy and delicious, the white beans work perfectly. It also needs very little seasoning since it’s so sweet naturally from the sweet corn.

Summer sweet corn goes really well in almost any dish. It’s a great topping for salads, adds natural sweetness to soups and is great on it’s own, no seasonings required.

Give this soup a try! It’s super easy (especially if you have frozen squash already, available at most health food stores.)

Fat Free Vegan Summer Harvest Soup (Butternut Squash Sweet Corn and White Bean Soup)

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

Directions:

Saute onions and garlic in a large pot over medium heat in 1/2 cup of vegetable broth until soft 5-6 minutes.
Add squash, corn and beans and remaining broth and cover. Cook until squash is tender.
Carefully spoon mixture into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Pour mixture back into pot, add seasonings and mix thoroughly. Taste test and adjust seasonings if desired.

What do you think of this summer soup? Have you ever tried smoked paprika before?

Fat Free Vegan Cabbage Soup (Cabbage Soup Diet Recipe For Weight Loss)

May 22, 2012 by Veronica Grace 72 Comments

Today I have a really healthy and easy recipe for you, especially if you’re interested in losing some weight, feeling better and eating more home cooked food. It’s a delicious spin on cabbage soup. No this is not the recipe from the Cabbage Soup Diet (which after looking at makes me think it kinda sucks…) Mine features whole homemade ingredients without any packages of soup seasoning, V8 or chemical flavour enhancers.

The point of the cabbage soup in the cabbage soup diet is to fill you up on broth and vegetables in place of one meal a day so that you can lose weight fairly easily without crash dieting or being hungry.

A Healthier Alternative To The Cabbage Soup Diet

If you wanted a healthy guideline to lose some weight a safe and manageable way it would be to just eat fruits, lots of vegetables (even baked potatoes, sweet potatoes and squash are ok) and homemade vegetable soup (should be oil/cream free). You want to fill up on lower calorie high fibre nutrient dense foods. You could also have some beans or homemade hummus to go with your meals if desired as well. People gain weight because they eat too many rich foods like fried foods, meat, cheese, cream, butter, pastries, and bread products with oil in/on them. Even eating a diet of just potatoes wouldn’t cause you to gain weight, but if you slathered every potato in butter, sour cream and bacon it would become far too rich to achieve weight loss.

Actually I put a friend of mine on a fat free (and also no bread or flour products) diet back in September and she’s lost 50 lbs already just by eating more homemade meals and making sure they were based on foods like potatoes, vegetables and even rice instead of meat, bread, pastries and dairy products. She’s doing great and still enjoys eating this way every day.

One thing people think when it comes to alternative “healthier” lifestyles it that they will always hate it, never be able to do it or even starve to death (maybe even get bored to death too!). Let me tell you that is not the case. I started eating more raw and vegan for health reasons, not because I didn’t like how steak or chicken tasted. (Hey I’m being honest!) But now I’ve been eating vegetable based dishes for so long that I actually don’t miss or crave any animal foods at all. I really couldn’t imagine eating them again. I actually enjoy the food I eat now even more than the food I used to eat. (Whatever you do most often now, you tend to like even more than what you used to do back then. It’s just the way the brain perceives things. Recent events tend to be better than past events a lot of the time because their more clear in our minds.) I like vegetables so much that if I go to a regular restaurant and get a pasta dish or soup that has hardly any vegetables in it, I get sad and want more vegetables! I could never just eat a big plate of plain spaghetti and sauce anymore, I love putting vegetables or lentils in it to give it more flavour.

People may think all vegans eat are carrots, broccoli and celery, but that is simply not true. In fact I eat a much wider variety of ALL plant foods now than I ever did before. I can’t even say I have a favourite fruit or vegetable. I love many of them like cherries, mangoes, watermelon, white peaches, Hawaiian papayas, pineapple, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, eggplant, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, Thai pumpkin, broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms and more. I wouldn’t be able to choose any of those as my favourite. I eat an even bigger variety than these, but these are some foods I really enjoy eating regularly and never get sick of eating. (This doesn’t even includes all the beans, legumes and whole grains I enjoy as well!)

I made 2 batches of vegetable broth and 2 batches of this cabbage soup last week, it was that good. One day I had 3 bowls of it for dinner! At 108 calories a bowl there’s really nothing to worry because you couldn’t possibly gain weight by eating this soup.

Fat Free Vegan Cabbage Soup Recipe

Serves 8

Ingredients:

2 medium sweet onions, diced (like Vidalia, Walla Walla etc. They have light coloured skin and a slightly flattened top and bottom)
5 cloves of garlic, minced
10 oz./283 g package of mushrooms, sliced
2 tsp fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
6 large stalks of celery, leaves removed and sliced
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1 lb/454 g (1/2 head) of green cabbage, shredded or cut with mandolin
28 oz/793 g (or 2 16oz cans) fire roasted diced tomatoes (I use Muir Glen Organics)
10 cups/2.5 qtss/2.3 L fresh vegetable broth (my recipes are here) or low sodium packaged vegetable broth
Herbamare/Sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Saute onions, garlic and mushrooms in 2-3 cups of vegetable broth for 5-6 minutes until the onions are tender. (Mushrooms take longer to cook than the rest of the veggies, so we’re cooking them first.)
Add the rest of the vegetables, the thyme, the canned tomatoes, and the vegetable broth.
Cook the vegetables over medium heat for 30-40 minutes or low heat for 1.5-2 hours until the vegetables are tender.
Season to taste with Herbamare or salt and pepper. Add a little cayenne or chili pepper if you like the soup spicy. If you like your soup a little thinner you can add a little more vegetable broth or water if desired. But don’t add too much or you will dilute the flavour.
Serve!

Additional Tips:

This soup is almost like a cabbage stew because it’s so full of vegetables. I prefer to have lots of veggies in my soup and a little less broth. You can add a little more broth if you like really watery soups. (But this is already so low calorie you don’t really need to water it down if you’re looking for a diet-friendly meal.)

I found I didn’t need to add much salt to my soup as I made homemade broth that was naturally sweet from the sweet onions, carrots and thyme and the fire roasted tomatoes have enough salt in them already.

This is a great recipe that you can use for a soup base and just change out some of the veggies for different ones for variety. You can also experiment with different salt free seasoning blends. Just make sure you always add a little, let it cook for a few minutes and taste test before adding more, so you don’t end up with an over seasoned soup!

If you use a bowl or two of this soup with some fruit or a salad every day instead of your normal meal it will help you lose weight just like any other meal replacement plan. But this is much more nutritious because it’s homemade and packed full of vitamins and minerals from the veggies. Even more so if you make your own vegetable broth. There is no comparison for me between store bought and homemade broth, so give it a try sometime and you will enjoy homemade soups even more!

Even if you changed a few of the vegetables in this soup it would be around the same calories. Overall it’s a very low calorie nutrient dense soup.

Nutrition Facts
Servings Per Recipe: 8
Serving Size: 1 serving

Amount Per Serving

Calories		104.0

Total Fat		0.4 g

	Saturated Fat	0.1 g

	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.2 g

	Monounsaturated Fat	0.0 g

Cholesterol		0.0 mg

Sodium		254.9 mg

Potassium		562.3 mg

Total Carbohydrate		17.8 g

	Dietary Fiber	6.3 g

	Sugars	7.8 g

Protein		3.8 g


Vitamin A	97.3 %

Vitamin B-12	0.0 %

Vitamin B-6	9.9 %

Vitamin C	69.2 %

Vitamin D	6.7 %

Vitamin E	2.0 %

Calcium	10.3 %

Copper	9.9 %

Folate	12.6 %

Iron	10.5 %

Magnesium	5.5 %

Manganese	9.9 %

Niacin	10.4 %

Pantothenic Acid	7.9 %

Phosphorus	7.1 %

Riboflavin	11.7 %

Selenium	6.2 %

Thiamin	6.6 %

Zinc	3.3 %

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