Dr. Amy Doherty

Sometimes, I can be a bit ambitious with the amount of greens I think I am going to eat and find myself with a huge bag of spinach or mixed greens that is going to go bad tomorrow if I don’t eat it tonight.  Enter this soup.  In addition to using green smoothies to get large amounts of greens into a little meal, it is also possible to make soups and dips out of them.  I was looking over the internet to find cream of spinach soups, but I only ran into versions that got their creaminess from dairy/fattening and unhealthy stuff.  Boring.  This version uses blended garbanzo beans for texture and creaminess.  So instead of upping your risk of all-cause mortality and fracture with milk consumption ), you can decrease blood pressure, inflammation, body weight and cholesterol by choosing beans instead.  So you can use it like spinach artichoke dip, except if you eat the whole thing with a spoon it is good for you instead of bad for you!  Or soup, whatever floats your boat.

Serves 2 (or one plus lunch the next day!)

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 6 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 tsp ground black peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp paprika or turmeric
• 1/2 X 15 oz can drained garbanzo beans
• About 3 c packed greens (you can also halve or quarter the recipe based on whatever amount of greens you need to use up)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• Dill of whatever variety you have on hand… I used 2 tsp of the stir-in paste you get in a 4oz plastic bottle in the produce section… an equivalent amount of fresh dill would probably be about a tablespoon of chopped herb, and an equivalent amount of dried dill would be 1 teaspoon.
• 1 c veggie broth

Directions

1.) Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onion becomes translucent.

2.) Add pepper, paprika or turmeric, garbanzo beans, and greens and saute until greens begin to wilt.

3.)  Add lemon juice, dill, and vegetable broth.

4.)  Use an immersion blender or standard blender to blend soup to desired consistency (careful, it’s hot!  May want to blend after you add veggie broth then heat after blending if using a conventional blender).  You can also add hot sauce as desired depending on spice preference, and in the above picture the soup is served with lentil chips!

More fresh fruits and veggies in your holiday= more beautiful, colorful food and less food coma later.  We used a nonfat Greek yogurt dip, and a ranch dip set up next to the veggies.  We fell back on the ranch dip with 12g fat per serving because we were worried the Greek yogurt dip would seem too healthy for the holidays.  All we did for the Greek yogurt dip was add about 1 Tbsp each onion and garlic powder with salt to taste to about a cup of nonfat Greek yogurt. Guests preferred the Greek yogurt!

Homemade Pico with lime Adobe sauce

Today, I was really in the mood for tomatoes, as often happens in December when it’s completely impossible to get fresh tomatoes. Unless someone has a hoop house set up, which I don’t.  However, I was recently introduced to Campari tomatoes.  Campari tomatoes are hothouse tomatoes so, although expensive and out of season, they still taste amazing if you are having a produce winter blues moment.

For the pico, I cut up the Camparis, added a contrasting color sweet pepper, black beans, and minced garlic.  This was dressed with the juice of one lime plus an adobo pepper pureed with a dash of olive oil.  Add cilantro to taste and you are done.  Make a bunch and eat it throughout the week.

To use up leftovers the next day, I filled a Portobello mushroom caps with the concoction, added whatever cheese I had on hand, and cooked in the oven at 400 F until warm and melty.  YUM.