It was 80 degrees in Los Angeles for the holidays and New Year’s. Do you know how disconcerting that is for a New Yorker?! So I, of course, had to rebel and make some soup. It IS winter back East, after all.
I’ve also been in the middle of my chef course, so making something new has been on the back burner for a while (yes, that pun WAS intended). We have to do homework during the week, so I don’t always have the time to be creative. This week I did! Yay!
I was so tired from all the fancy “holiday” food (read sugar, fat and calories), that I wanted to make a vegetarian soup that was hearty and used winter veggies. I combined a few different recipes and came up with this. I don’t think you’ll miss the meat here. I had my boyfriend give it a shot and he doesn’t like ANYTHING healthy-he loved it and had seconds. I just like food that has substance and this is just the ticket. It’s a tad high in salt, but you can omit the salt from the seasoning mix and just adjust the seasonings at the end.
Nutritional Breakdown:
Calories:270 Sodium: 640mgs
Fat: 6gr Carbs: 48gr
Saturated Fat: 3gr Fiber: 9gr
Cholesterol: 10mg Sugars: 10gr
Protein: 10gr
Sweet Potato and Parsnip Soup
Ingredients
- 2 lbs peeled, baked sweet potatoes
- 2 tbsps unsalted butter
- 2 tbsps garlic, finely chopped
- 6 cups chicken stock or broth, low sodium
- 1C onion, chopped small
- 2 cups spinach leaves, cut into small pieces
- 2 cups peeled parsnips cut into ½” pieces
- 4 cups of Swiss chard leaves cut into 1” pieces
- 3 jalapenos, seeded and minced
- Seasoning Mix:
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp paprika
- 1 tsp dill weed
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- ¾ tsp onion powder
- ¾ tsp black pepper
- ¾ tsp ground sage
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp white pepper
Instructions
- Combine seasoning mix in a small bowl. Bake sweet potatoes. Process the sweet potatoes in a food processor until smooth. Place the butter in a heavy 5-qt pot over high heat. Melt and add sweet potatoes, garlic and seasonings. Cook over medium heat for 6 minutes. Add 4 cups of stock. Stir to make sure nothing sticks for another 6 minutes. Add 2 more cups of stock and cook until boiling, about 8 minutes. Add onion, spinach, parsnips, chard and jalapenos. Stir and cover. Simmer for another 20 minutes. Add more stock if needed.
