Soup which is rich in fibre from the Beans and the Cauliflower, makes it satisfying enough to be a main course..

There are so many reasons why I love soups, few reasons are: A bowl of steaming homemade soup is good enough to fill my stomach and I don’t have to do any extra cooking by making other sides to go with the soup. Also, I could throw any kinds of veggies or meat or beans, literally anything from my pantry or refrigerator can go into that soup pot. If you feel that your refrigerator is over stacked with veggies and wants to empty them without even thrashing a single veggie, then consider making a hearty soup throwing everything into the pot. You get to enjoy the homemade soup and nothing will go wasted. Apart from these, soups are nourishing, refreshing and inexpensive if you want to feed a large crowd. When the soup is homemade, there is nothing more comforting than that.

Last night, I made a soup with cauliflower and two types of beans: Red kidney beans and Black eyed peas. In most of the soups, the flavor comes from the chicken stock or veggie stock added to that. So this time I wanted to avoid adding the chicken stock, of course to make it more healthy. Hence to make the soup rich and flavorful I had to puree the cooked beans and cauliflower, which indeed made the soup hearty and rich.

Cauliflower and Beans Soup:

Serves: 5

Ingredients:

• Onion, chopped- 1
• Celery ribs, chopped-2
• Garlic minced- 2 cloves
• Cauliflower, separated into florets- 1 whole
• Tomatoes, diced-2
• Black Eyed Peas dried- 1/2 cup
• Red Kidney Beans, canned, drained and rinsed- 15.5 oz can
• Thyme- 1 sprig
• Bay leaves, fresh or dried-2
• Parsley sprigs- 2
• Ground pepper- 1 tsp
• Salt – to taste
• Water- 4 cups
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil- 2 tbsp
• Grated Parmesan, to garnish- 1 tbsp/bowl or according to your needs

Preparation:

• In a large Pot with Cover, heat 2 tbsp oil, add the onion, celery, garlic and season with ground pepper and salt.
• Cover over medium heat, until the veggies are softened, 5 minutes.
• Add the cauliflower and saute.
• Add the tomatoes and cook for few minutes.
• Add the dried black eyed peas and water, bring to a boil.
• Add the parsley, thyme and bay leaves into the pot.

• Cover the pot and simmer over low heat until the black-eyed peas are tender, it takes 30 minutes.
• When the black-eyed beans are well cooked, add the red kidney beans and simmer for 10 minutes longer.
• When the beans are cooked through, transfer the thick soup into a blender in batches and puree it into a coarse paste.
• Pour the pureed soup into the pot, if the soup is too thick you could add water to thin it according to your needs.
• Taste the soup, add more salt and ground pepper if needed.
• Ladle the soup into bowls.
• Sprinkle each bowl with 1 tbsp of the cheese and serve hot.

Tips:

• You could add low sodium Chicken Stock instead of water and cook the beans in it.
• If you are using chicken stock, there is no need of pureeing the soup, you could have it just like that.
• To make it healthy, I cooked the beans in water and pureed it for making the soup rich and flavorful

Chili soup, is one of my all time favorites. whenever I come across chili in any restaurant, I make sure to order that first. It’s a thick hearty soup, a bowl of chili is good enough to fill my stomach, of course with lots of cheese sprinkled over it.

Here is the recipe for making the most delicious chili and that too in under 30 minutes. Hence the name “Express Chili”. This tasted just like restaurant style. Now, I don’t have to rush to a restaurant if I feel like having chili. I could make this in my own kitchen. So let the countdown begin and in 30 minutes you have your bowl of hot chili ready.

Ingredients

• Precooked Chicken breast, diced -1 pound
• Chicken stock- 4 cups
• Salsa (store bought, mild or medium hot)-  16 ounce jar
• kidney beans ( rinsed)- 1can
• White beans (rinsed)- 1can
• Garlic- 3tsp
• Cumin powder-2 tsp
• Cheddar cheese ( grated)- 1 cup
• Tortilla chips ( finely crushed)- 1 cup

Preparation Method:

• Heat up a dutch oven.
• Add the chicken stock, followed by salsa, beans, garlic, precooked chicken, and cumin powder.
• Mix everything and let the mixture come to a boiling.
• When the above mixture starts to thicken, add the cheddar cheese and give it a quick stir and let the cheese melt.
• Finish up the chili with finely crushed tortilla chips.
• Ladle into bowls and serve with more cheese sprinkled over the soup or sour cream.

Tips:

• I poached the chicken in water until well cooked.
• This is a really thick chili, you could thin it down by adding more of the chicken stock.
• Health freaks, you could use fat free cheese.
• Make sure to add cumin powder, this really makes a difference, gives that smoky flavor.
• Hard core veggies: try this without chicken, and let me know how it turns out.

Now that you got the perfect recipe for making the chili just like restaurant style, what are you doing here? Rush into your kitchen and let the aroma of chili spread all over your house. Enjoy!