Broccoli Spinach Soup au Pistou

This is a great lunch soup, hot or cold, that travels well in a thermos to the office or hiking trail.  Also serve it to yourself as a late afternoon pick-me-up when dinner feels a little too far off.

Low calorie versions of broccoli-cheese soup often use processed ingredients.  This version adds baby spinach to create a velvet texture and a flavorful bright green tint.  Parmesan cheese and basil stand in for the heavier cheeses and add a love hint of summer flavor.  Pistou normally includes a bit of olive oil with the cheese and basil but the soup is rich enough without it.  Pistou is like pesto but without the pine nuts.  A tablespoon of pistou, made from basil and Parmesan cheese incorporated into a bit of olive oil is used throughout the south of France to step up the flavor of soups and stews.  The combination livens up this simple broccoli and spinach soup and make it satisfying hot or chilled.

Broccoli-Spinach Soup “au Pistou”
4 servings
Ingredients
3 cups roughly chopped broccoli (including peeled stems)
3 cups chicken broth
1/2-1 cup water
3 cups loosely packed baby spinach (half of 9-oz bag)
2 T chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Method

1. In a large saucepan over high heat, bring chopped broccoli to a boil in chicken broth and water.  (Add enough water so that broccoli is covered.)  
2. Turn heat to medium, cover and cook broccoli until quite tender, about 20-25 minutes.  
3. Remove cover and add spinach.  With a large spoon, stir spinach into hot broth until it wilts. Remove soup from heat.  Add basil and cheese.  
4. Use a immersion blender to puree vegetables in broth.  There should be no lumps.  (Or allow soup to cool for half an hour and puree in a regular blender.) 
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.  

Serve hot or chilled.  You might like a shot of skim or whole milk in the soup if serving hot.  If eating cold, serve with a dollop of sour cream or Greek-style plain yogurt.

Immersion blenders allow you to puree soups right in the cooking pot. 

Pasta Salad

For many of us, getting ready for beach weather means setting limits on carbs without going hungry.  The challenge for the pure-minded is that much so-called diet food uses additives for texture and flavor.  The ensuing sacrifice in flavor and health is off-putting.  Sometimes you need something really hardy between all those salads and this pasta dish makes the cut on both taste and nutrition. 

Even non-whole grain pasta enthusiasts went for this pasta salad made with rotini-shaped pasta that picks up the creamy yet low-cal sauce.  The secret is an ounce of cream cheese. And yes, you can use regular cream cheese and still get the low-cal benefits.  The high ratio of  vegetables to pasta (especially mushrooms) also lowers the calorie count while the whole grain pasta makes it deeply satisfying.

Whole Wheat Pasta Salad
Serves 4, recipe can be doubled

Ingredients
8 ounces whole grain rotini (like Barilla)
8 ounces portabello mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces asparagus, trimmed and chopped in 3-4 sections
2 carrots, peeled and julienned
1 ounce cream cheese
1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup leftover pasta water, low-fat milk or chicken broth to taste
salt & pepper
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped (other fresh herbs like tarragon, thyme or dill may be substituted)

1.  Cook pasta according instructions on package and drain well. (Reserve a small amount of pasta water to use in the sauce.)
2. While pasta cooks, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and saute mushrooms.  Remove from pan.
3. In same skillet, add a 1/2 cup cold water, asparagus and carrots.  Boil over high heat, uncovered until water evaporates and vegetables are crisp-tender.  Cook a little longer with more water if you like your vegetables a bit more tender.  Lower heat to simmer. 
4. Return mushrooms to skillet and add warm pasta. Stir in cream cheese and Parmesan cheese.  Add pasta water, milk or broth to thin the sauce so that it coats pasta well. 
5. Sprinkle with chopped herbs and serve immediately or chill to use a cold pasta salad.

This transports very well to a picnic, pot luck or the office.  A serving with a few slices of cooked chicken breast or tofu make a complete lunch. 

While  meant to be a side salad served cold or room temperature, that first night it got gobbled up hot and never got a chance to chill.  The next day I added a little low-fat milk to moisten the leftovers and served it cold alongside sandwiches.

Strawberry Time

 

It’s strawberry season so why do anything to these bright red berries but enjoy?  If your backyard is yielding the naturally sweet and red through-and-through berry, then I would not do more than eat them as is.  Early season and cultivated strawberries, on the other hand, could use a little enhancement to intensify the flavor and remind us what a great strawberry really tastes like.  Simple Strawberry Compote is that enhancement.

The beauty of some store-bought strawberry varieties only goes skin deep.  The perfectly shaped, large berries with pale interiors look picture-perfect but often lack deep strawberry flavor.  Smelling even sub-par strawberries makes us yearn for shortcake or pound cake topped with berries and cream.  Especially if you bake your own dessert, you deserve better strawberries.  

Simple strawberry compote gives you juicy berries with real strawberry flavor and a little sauce to spoon over cakes, ice cream, custards and yogurt. 

Simple Strawberry Compote

Ingredients

2 pints strawberries, hulled and rinsed

juice of 1/2 fresh orange
2-3 drops vanilla extract
1/2- 1 teaspoon sugar or honey

Method

1. Slice berries about 1/4 inch thick.  Place in a microwavable bowl.  
2. Squeeze orange juice over strawberries.  Stir in vanilla and sugar.  
3. Microwave on high in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until strawberries “wilt” and juices begin to run into bottom of bowl.  Remove and use at once or cover and cool to dip into at will.

Strawberry compote keeps, covered and refrigerated, up to 2 days.

This is also a great way to transform frozen strawberries.  Microwave them whole with the other ingredients.  Use the back of a fork to lightly crush them into bite-sized pieces. 

Wonderful stirred into cream or an ice cream custard and frozen into strawberry ice cream.  And as always, enjoy them with plain real yogurt.  We have been seduced by Seven Stars plain yogurt with cream on top of late.  It’s made at a dairy outside of Philadelphia. 

Dried Cherry-Almond Muesli

My father used to bring unusual foods back from Europe when I was a child.  Several became family favorites despite initial skepticism.  One of those was muesli.  One spring day, my father got through customs from Switzerland with several boxes of what appeared to be saw dust and crushed crackers clinging to raisins.  With enthusiasm my father served us 1/4 cup portions doused with milk.  It was a far cry from Sugar Pops and I didn’t even like them much (not being big on cereal as a child).

This was my first taste of grown up cereal and probably the closest we could come in the 1960s to organic or all natural food.  The sweetness was derived solely from the dried fruit—which turned out to be dates as well as raisins.  The sawdust and crushed crackers were in reality wheat, oat and rye grain flakes, slivered almonds, sunflower seeds and other ingredients we now recognize as “high fiber.”

Muesli is raw food’s answer to granola.  And while most Americans enjoy granola on its own, in bars or as cereal it has become almost as sweet as the aforementioned Sugar Pops.  It’s hard to find a low-calorie/low-fat granola without making your own. (More on this in future weeks).  Muesli is pure grain goodness and very low in fat. 

The thing about eating foods like muesli when you are young, even if you don’t immediately take to it, is that you have a memory of a highly satisfying, not too sweet, crunchy snack that goes well with milk.  You find yourself searching it out years later.

Happily, we no longer have to transport muesli from Switzerland in our suitcases.  There are some good makers on health food store shelves and muesli is also surprisingly simple to make from scratch.  I made a batch the other morning that I’ve enjoyed soaked in a bit of milk and/or yogurt with some fresh berries.  As promised, complex and filling enough to get through a morning thanks to all that fiber and lightly sweet from nuts and dried fruit flavors rather than sugar.

Grain flakes are the main ingredient—these look like rolled oats and come in wheat, barley, spelt, rye and oat varieties.  Pick them up in the cereal or natural food aisle at the supermarket.  They are often combined and called 5- or 8- grain cereal.  (Bob’s Red Mill makes a nice 5-grain version.) From there raid your pantry for nuts, seeds and dried fruits.  You can even add commercial stand-bys like shredded wheat cereal and grape nuts.  Here’s one recipe that will give you a sense of proportions.  This one is for cherry-almond muesli.

Dried Cherry-Almond Muesli
Makes 6 1/4 cup servings
Ingredients
2 cups mixed grain flakes
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons roasted sunflower seeds
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method

1. Mix all ingredients together in a covered container. 
2. Serve in 1/4 cup portions with plain yogurt or milk, berries, and if desired, honey or maple syrup.  If you've never eaten muesli before, allow it to soak for a few minutes in the yogurt or milk before consuming.   

Other combinations: 1) raisins and peanuts, 2) dried apricots pieces and chopped hazelnuts with pepitas, 3) dates, coconut and a touch of ground ginger or 4) dried pineapple pieces and walnuts, etc.

Several years ago we stayed at a Vermont inn owned by an Austrian couple.  The breakfast buffet included one of my favorite ways to enjoy muesli.  Muesli is mixed with plain yogurt and grated apple and left overnight (covered and refrigerated).  The grains are sweetened by the grated apple and soften and plump up in the yogurt.  Serve with a drizzle of honey and garnish with some finely chopped nuts or wheat germ.   Use about 1 cup yogurt, 1/4 muesli and 1/2 a grated apple per serving.