Tasty Tuesday!

I'm so glad everypug is loving Tasty Tuesday. I love blogging about food almost as much a I love eating it! Today's recipe is relatively new to Mom. When it comes to cooking, Mom takes the KISS approach. She's not opposed to trying new recipes and ingredients but she doesn't like to make a big deal out of food because like she always says, it's just food.

Mom came across this recipe earlier this year and after making it for the first time, declared it her new favorite. Then she started reading The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone and came across a blurb about nightshade foods. Alicia doesn't eat nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, and eggplant) because they contain alkaloids, a group of substances found in these foods that can impact nerve-muscle function and digestive function, and may also compromise joint function. Hmmm. This bothered Mom because she loves these foods and doesn't want to give them up. I did a little research on nightshades and found that the amount of alkaloids is very low in nightshade foods when compared with other nightshade plants, thus health problems from nightshade foods may only occur in individuals who are especially sensitive to these alkaloid substances. Thank goodness! Cooking apparently lowers the alkaloid content of nightshades by about 40-50%, so only highly sensitive individuals may want to avoid this category of food.

Red-Pepper Soup with Basil Cream

via CookingLight.com

Serves 6

3 small cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 can (15-ounce) crushed tomatoes
1 jar (12-ounce) marinated roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup packed fresh basil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, for basil cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Sauté garlic and onion with olive oil in large pot over medium heat for 6 minutes. Add tomatoes, red peppers, and chicken broth. Cook for 15 minutes.

Add fresh basil, balsamic vinegar, and sugar and puree in a blender or food processor.

For basil cream, stir sour cream and heavy cream together with chopped basil and salt and freshly ground pepper. Serve soup with dollop of basil cream and chopped basil

Notes:

Mom doesn't eat the soup with the basil cream. She feels the soup is delicious on its own and that it doesn't need an accompaniment. At 152 calories and 11 grams of fat, it's my guess that the basil cream is the source of most of the fat.

There can never be enough garlic in anything for Mom so she doubles the amount.

Marinated roasted red peppers come in a glass jar and this is a good thing because you can reuse the jar for storing the soup. You can also make your own if you have the time. If you belong to a CSA or your farmer's market has red peppers in late August when they are in season, I'd recommend buying a bunch and canning them. This is a surefire way to have them on hand when you need them.

Even though the recipe calls for chicken broth, Mom substitutes vegetable broth.

Refined sugar makes it way into so many recipes. It's amazing how we need to sweeten everything up in order to eat it. Mom has started experimenting with sugar alternatives and will be using brown rice syrup in place of sugar next time she makes this soup. Agave nectar had been touted as a great sugar substitute in recent years but so much bad press has come out how it's no better than high fructose corn syrup.

A regular blender or food processor would do the trick but an immersion blender is the quickest, easiest way to blend soup. Mom can't rave about hers enough. They've really come down in price and it's a small kitchen applicance that you'll never regret you purchased. You'll use it over and over again while wondering how you ever lived without it.

This would be a great first course or meal for Meatless Mondays. Removing meat from your diet one day a week has a huge positive impact on the planet. You may even find yourself not missing meat when Tuesday rolls around as you wait patiently for another Tasty Tuesday installment.