My discovery for soups and creamy textures

[Guest guest]

Hi, again!

 

    I used to use canned, condensed soups (you know the kind--salty, starchy,

often fatty and not always made with " real " ingredients!).  They were useful,

after a fashion, because I could take a can that had, say, pasta, rice of

potatoes in it and put it in the blender--instant " thick " broth for a stew or a

creamier soup--or to use for a " gravy " .  (All those soups seemed to have a LOT

of " food starch " in them, as well as salt!)

 

    Well, a few years ago, I swore off the canned soups-as-cooking ingredients. 

I did have a few cans of much nicer " organic " soups from a local health foods

store in my pantry.  I didn't use them up right away, so there they stayed. 

They weren't/aren't " condensed " like the " other " ones were, but I thought that

sometime they might be used for something...

 

    Yesterday, I thawed out a frozen box of a vegetable soup I had in the

freezer and, well, I didn't think it looked exactly " appetizing " after it thawed

out.  I didn't want to TROW it away--I mean, it WAS a good soup--just didn't

look so good after being frozen and thawed.

 

     So, I got out one of those cans of organic soup--to add " oomph " and flavor,

mixed it with the (very thickened after freezing) frozen-thawed home-made soup,

then, I put them both in the blender with 2/3 of a " block " of that

aseptically-boxed silken tofu I'd recently bought.  Blended the heck out of the

stuff--it looked smooth, creamy and like " gravy " almost.

 

     Meanwhile, I took some FRESH vegetables: onions, celery, carrots, a bit of

chopped orange bell pepper, and a pinch of fresh-minced garlic...sauteed it a

bit in a skillet with some light olive oil, some seasoned salt, some thyme (I

put thyme in everything!),. some parsley, some celery leaves--oh, and some

almost-dried up, but still " good " leeks, chopped up finely... When the onions

went transparent, I put the " creamy blended " stuff and the sauteed veggies

together into one pot to heat together.  I added a few more herbs/spices (Mrs.

Dash, a pinch of coriander, some pepper and celery salt...) and heated it for a

little bit to mingle the flavors.

 

     I took some of this creamy-vegetable soup up to my husband's office for his

lunch at noon.  He had it with a few crackers and LOVED it.  I never told him it

had tofu in it.  He'd have croaked!  (He did say something like, " This is

good...I know there's probably something in it that I wouldn't eat if I knew it

was there...Are there MUSHROOMS in it? "

(I was perfectly honest when I told him, " No--no mushrooms! " , because there

weren't any.)

Later that evening, DH at home wanted some more of " that good soup " .  He really

LIKED it, and I did tell him, " It is all healthy stuff--even that nice, creamy

'gravy' broth! "

 

     This discovery of the usefulness of " silken " tofu has me so excited!  We

can have " creamed " soups now without all the fat from " butter-flour (or

cornstarch)-and broth-or-milk "

that I've always made to get that thick, savory " creamy " consistency of several

kinds of soups we like. 

 

    Oh, and I almost forgot to add that the other " secret " ingredient in the

creamy veg soup was some plain soy-milk that I thinned it out with a bit.  DH

doesn't mind the soy milk so much--he just doesn't want me telling  him it's in

something!  HA!!

 

    I'm going back to the kitchen now to finish today's soup: Mayo-coba beans,

some collards, onions, celery and (I may try this) some pureed or chunked winter

squash  in it.

(I have the perfect squash to add... but squash is another food on DH's hit

list.  He has had things in soups that he normally won't eat and it usually goes

fine.  The flavor and texture has to be just-so...I'm working on it!

 

    Hope you-all have a happy Tuesday!

 

--Laura B., in Illinois