Friday, February 10, 2012

Purchased Soups



There are times when I don't have any good pureed soups in the freezer and I'm not feeling well enough to make anything. For those times, it's good to have some purchased soups in the pantry.  I don't eat many foods from a can, but there are times when it becomes necessary.So here's a list of my favorite soups to buy.  For those that need to be pureed a bit more, I pour the soup into a deep glass measuring cup and then use my immersion hand-held blender. Then it is quick to warm up in the microwave and cleaning up is quick, too.  The benefit of all of these soups is that the nutritional information is listed on the package, making it easy to fit them into my diabetes eating plan.  


Amy's Kitchen: (all organic)
Low-Fat Tomato Soup
Split Pea Soup (may need to be pureed more)
Light in Sodium Butternut Squash Soup 
Thai Coconut Soup (may need to be pureed more)
Curried Lentil Soup (may need to be pureed more) 


Pacific Natural Foods: (all organic)
Thai Sweet Potato Soup (may need to be pureed more)
Curried Red Lentil Soup (may need to be pureed more)
Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato (may need to be pureed more) 
Cashew Carrot Ginger Soup (may need to be pureed more) 
Butternut Squash Soup 


Imagine Natural Creations:  (all organic) 
Garden Broccoli Soup (may need to be pureed more) 
Acorn Squash and Mango Soup
Organic Creamy Butternut Squash Soup 







Broccoli-Tofu Soup

Broccoli-Tofu Soup




As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been struggling with my health this past week and have needed to be even more cautious than usual choosing what to eat.  So today as I was feeling a bit better, I made a new combination that turned out great.  It's simply pureed broccoli with silken tofu added to it, spiced with soy sauce and a pinch of Five-Spice Powder.  Silken tofu is a great addition to soups to make it creamy without adding fat or many carbohydrates while also packing a punch of protein. For soups, I generally buy Mori-Nu Silken Tofu in the Extra Firm variety.  Tofu readily absorbs whatever flavor you put with it, making it ideal for adding to soups.   Most of all, I knew as I ate this for lunch that it wouldn't create any digestive tract blockages and the fiber in the pureed broccoli would keep my sluggish bowels on the move.   


Ingredients:
3 cups chopped broccoli florets
1 cup reduced-sodium vegetable broth
1 12.3-oz package Silken Tofu, extra firm
1/2 teaspoon reduced sodium soy sauce
pinch of Five-Spice Powder


Preparation:
Place the broccoli florets in a 6 cup glass measuring container with the vegetable broth.  Microwave on high power till the broccoli is tender, about 8 minutes.  Puree the broccoli and broth with a hand-held immersion blender in the glass container. Add the tofu and seasonings and puree it a bit more.


Nutrition:
Servings per recipe: 3
Serving Size: About 1 1/2 cups
Calories: 95
Total Fat: 3 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 201 mg
Total Carbs: 8 g
Dietary Fiber: 3 g
Protein: 11 g