Healthy Recipes 360 » Healthy Cooking

Quickest Vegetable Soup Recipe

admin — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 03:58:24 +0000

This is the quickest vegetable soup recipe that I know. It is delicious and low in fat, yet very fast and easy to make. Most soups take a lot of time to make and usually you wind up making enough to feed a small army. You can make a half-batch of this recipe if you like (all the photos I shot were a half-batch).

So with this recipe you can make it fast plus you can make it in small batches. Those are two big plus points … and another plus is that it is healthy! We try to use all organic ingredients – organic broth, organic basil and oregano, organic carrots, green beans and cabbage.

The secret to this recipe is that you start with vegetable broth and beef broth. They come in handy 32-oz containers. That’s what saves the time. We only use organic broths because we want to make sure they are healthy to begin with. You simply add in fresh vegetables. It only takes a few minutes to chop them. Using fresh vegetables always ensures you’re getting good food. That’s important.

Ingredients:

4 carrots, sliced
2 large stalks celery, sliced
2 cups sliced cabbage
4 garlic cloves, minced or 3/4 tsp crushed garlic
4 cups beef broth
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup fresh or frozen green beans
2 tbsp tomato paste or 4 tbsp tomato puree
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper
*1 teaspoon salt
1 cup diced zucchini

* Amount of salt depends on whether or not the broth is a low sodium variety.

Add broth to a medium sized saucepan and heat over a medium flame. Add tomato paste (or tomato sauce) and stir until dissolved. Next, add cabbage, carrots, celery and green beans. Stir in minced garlic (or crushed garlic) and then add seasonings – basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

Stir thoroughly and then bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Finally, add diced zucchini and cook for another 15 minutes or so until all the vegetables are cooked. Serve hot.

Shown below is a photo of the ingredients. Starting in the back row and moving left to right: pepper, salt, crushed garlic, organic beef broth, organic vegetable broth, oregano, basil, sliced celery, sliced cabbage, diced zucchini, tomato paste, frozen green beans, carrots.

Note: In these photos I’m making a half-batch.

Start by adding the broth to a pan.

Next, add the tomato paste and stir it in real good to dissolve it. Make sure it is completely dissolved before proceeding.

Add the sliced cabbage …

Add the celery and sliced carrots …

Add the green beans …

Add in the crushed garlic …

Add the seasonings …

Note: Be careful when adding the salt. The amount will depend on whether or not the broth you are using is a a low-sodium variety.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for about 15 minutes …

Now add the zucchini … we cook for awhile before adding the zucchini because we don’t want to overcook it.

Cook for another 15 minutes or so and you’re done!

Serve hot. This is really good soup. It’s quick and easy and you can make it in small batches, plus it’s healthy.

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Low Fat Chili Con Carne (Killer Chili)

admin — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 04:12:06 +0000

There’s nothing like homemade chili! It seems like everyone has his or her own special recipe so this is my version. You can cook it up on the stove in a couple of hours. You first need to have some cooked pinto beans. You can cook them the day before and keep them in the refrigerator or soak them the night before and cook the beans and the chili all in one day. They take about 3 hours to cook after soaking all night.

Everything in this recipe is healthy. I use grass-fed ground beef. It’s the best quality beef you can obtain. Some chili recipes call for kidney beans, but this one uses pinto beans.

This recipe uses 3 different kinds of chili peppers – Anaheim, serrano and sweet mini-peppers. The Anaheim peppers are very mild and the serrano peppers provide all the hotness. You can substitute jalapeño peppers for the serrano peppers if you want. Jalapeño peppers are not quite as hot, but will work. The nice thing about cooking with peppers is that it seems no matter how you combine them, you can taste all the individual flavors.

This is actually low fat chili. When you cook the ground beef you separate all the fat and then blot the cooked meat with a paper towel to remove as much fat as possible. You will use a little bit of vegetable oil to sauté the garlic, but you can use high quality oil which should be good fat. Be sure to buy non-hydrogenated cooking oil and one that is preferably organic and not made from GMO foods.

You can also vary the flavor by varying the brand of chili powder. I tried a “chili lime” chili powder recently. It was good. The tart lime flavor really added a nice touch.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
28 oz can diced tomatoes
3 cups cooked pinto beans
1 lg onion, chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
2 large Anaheim peppers, chopped
2 serrano chili peppers, finely chopped (or jalapeño peppers)
1 1/4 cups asst sweet peppers, chopped (mild chili peppers or mini-peppers)
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp salt
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Cook the ground meat in a skillet, and then tip the pan to drain off the fat. Blot the ground meat with a paper towel to remove the remaining fat and then add the can of diced tomatoes. Stir them together and then cook over a low flame.

Meanwhile, add the vegetable oil to a large cooking pot and then lightly sauté the garlic over a medium flame (do not brown). Next, add the onions and cook until they are soft and translucent (also do not brown). Next, add the chopped tomatoes and cook the vegetables for about 15 or 20 minutes over a medium low flame until the tomatoes are broken down.

When the vegetables are done, add the cooked ground meat and diced tomatoes to the pot along with the assorted chopped peppers. Stir everything together and then add the seasonings – chili powder, ground cumin and salt. Finally, add the cooked pinto beans, cover and simmer over a low flame for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Cook until the chili is of uniform consistency and all the peppers are cooked.

Vary the hotness by varying the peppers. Two serrano peppers are good for a start for most people’s taste. Cooking will reduce the hotness a bit. Serrano peppers (or jalapeño peppers) are the hot ones, the Anaheim peppers are mild and the sweet peppers have no hotness.

Shown below are all the ingredients to make chili. Going from left to right and starting in the back row: chili powder, cooked pinto beans, salt, ground cumin, organic canola oil, onion, tomatoes, can of diced tomatoes, one pound of grass-fed ground beef, fresh garlic cloves, Anaheim peppers, serrano peppers and sweet mini peppers.

Start by splitting each garlic clove to make it easy to peel them.

Finely chop the garlic cloves and add them to a large cooking pot …

Next, chop the onion. Start by cutting it in half.

Peel the onion halves and then make about 4 or 5 vertical cuts on one of the halves. Keep one end attached without cutting through.

Next, make 2 or 3 horizontal slices and keep the same end attached as in the vertical cuts.

Finally, make vertical cross-cuts spaced about 1/4 inch apart. Start at the cut end and work your way to the attached end. When you get to the last piece, lay it on its side and chop the remainder.

That’s the fastest way to chop an onion. You can swap the order of the cuts if you want – horizontal slices first, followed by the vertical cuts.

Now add a little oil to the cooking pot with the chopped garlic and sauté over a medium flame. Don’t brown it, just lightly cook it …

Note: Normally I would sauté garlic and onions in a skillet, but we need to cook the ground beef in the skillet at the same time the vegetables are cooking. There’s no point in cooking with 2 skillets plus a pot, so we will use the pot to cook the vegetables. It will cook the same as a large skillet.

While the garlic is cooking, add the ground beef to a skillet and start cooking it.

Add the onions to the sauteéd garlic just before it starts to brown and stir it quickly to cool it off a bit. Cook the onions until they are soft and translucent (also not brown).

While the onions are cooking, chop the tomatoes – they go in next. Start by halving them and removing the hard stem ends.

Cut them the same way you did the onion, vertical cuts, horizontal cuts and then chop …

By the time the tomatoes are chopped the onions should be cooked …

Cook the onions until they are soft and translucent …

Now add the chopped tomatoes.

You should cook them for about 15 to 20 minutes until the tomatoes are completly broken down.

In the meantime, keep cooking the beef.

Next, chop all the peppers. I start with the Anaheim peppers. Start by cutting the ends …

Next, make a horzontal cut all the way down the pepper to cut it in half. Do this for each pepper.

Now we want to get rid of the ribs and seeds. Just pull them off by hand. They come off really easy.

Break off the good parts around the stems by hand.

Now slice each half lengthwise into about 4 or 5 slices each.

Then chop them into medium sized chunks.

Chop all the Anaheim peppers this way.

Next, we will chop up all the mini peppers.

Pull the stems off and cut each pepper into thin slices.

Then make cross cuts on the pile to finish chopping them.

Finally we will chop the seranno peppers.

Start by cutting off the stems.

Slice each pepper into thin slices.

Now finely chop all the slices.

Note: Always finely chop the hot peppers. You can coarse chop the Anaheim peppers and medium-fine chop the sweet peppers, but you will get the best texture if you finely chop the hot peppers. There won’t be any hot chewy surprises in the finished chili this way!

The tomatoes are almost done … wait until they are light yellowish orange in color.

Keep checking the meat. Use a metal spatula and keep chopping it up as you cook it.

When the ground meat is cooked, tip the pan up to drain all the fat off and spoon it out of the pan.

Use a paper towel to blot away as much fat as you can.

Place the skillet back on the burner and add the can of diced tomatoes. Heat over a medium flame while the tomatoes and onions are cooking in the pot.

Stir the diced tomatoes into the meat while cooking.

You’ve been bouncing back and forth between the meat in the skillet and the vegetables in the pot. Now the tomatoes are done and if you’ve timed it all right, the meat and diced tomatoes should have been cooking for about 10 to 12 minutes or so.

Add the cooked meat and diced tomatoes to the pot …

Followed by all the chopped peppers …

Next add the seasonings – chili powder, ground cumin and salt.

Stir everything up real good.

Keep stirring to mix everything together.

Finally, add the cooked pinto beans.

We will add about 3 cups of pinto beans to the pot.

Stir the beans in real good and then cover and cook over a LOW flame. Cover the pot and simmer over a low flame for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Keep checking the pot every 20 minutes or so and stir the chili with a wooden spoon. Adjust the flame as necessary to keep from burning. Just cook it over a low flame.

After a couple of hours the chili will thin out and all the flavors will be married up.

Serve hot. Delicious!

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Mediterranean Salad Dressing

admin — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 05:17:13 +0000

You can make your own homemade salad dressing very easily in about 5-10 minutes with this healthy recipe. The main advantage is that you can control the ingredients – you know what’s going into it.

The main ingredients of this salad dressing are olive oil and red wine vinegar. These are typical ingredients found in Mediterranean foods so I call it “Mediterranean Salad Dressing.” It also has a spicy flavor because it has curry powder, pepper and Dijon mustard. Place it in the refrigerator after mixing and shake it up real good before using it.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 juice from one lime
1 tsp raw honey
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

In a mixing jar, combine olive oil, red wine vinegar, soy sauce, juice from one fresh lime, honey, Dijon mustard, curry powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Close lid and shake vigorously for several minutes to thoroughly mix ingredients. Keep refrigerated.

Shown below is a shot of the ingedients and a jar to put it in. I saved a jar from some other product that we bought and re-used it for the salad dressing.

Add all the ingredients to the jar, shake it up real good and store in the refrigerator.

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Fat Free Ginger Turkey Curry with Brown Rice

admin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:51:26 +0000

This is a delicious curry recipe that is relatively easy to make. You will need some turkey stew meat (turkey breast with all the fat and skin removed), fresh ginger root, Anaheim chili pepper, onion, garlic, fat-free plain yogurt, fresh coriander (cilantro), chicken broth and some curry powder. We buy our curry powder by the pound because it is more economical than what is available in grocery stores.

This recipe makes about 4 servings. It can be served by itself, but is best when served over brown rice. This isn’t exactly a core food because it is made with a dairy product (yogurt) but it is still good for keeping your weight down. It is made with good, whole, natural foods.

Ingredients:

2 cups sliced onions
1 chopped green chili pepper (Anaheim chili)
1 tbsp. fresh ginger root, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 lb. turkey stew meat, bite sized pieces
1 tbsp. curry powder
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup chopped coriander (cilantro)
5 tbsp. plain fat-free yogurt

cooked brown rice

Start by cooking the brown rice. Use a rice cooker or tightly covered pot. While the rice is cooking, slice the onions into thin slices. For large onions, you can quarter them first. Chop the chili pepper, then finely chop the ginger and garlic (peel the ginger root before chopping). Add the sliced onions, chopped chili pepper, garlic and ginger to a large skillet along with about 1/2 cup of water, then cook over a medium flame until the onions are soft and slightly translucent (about 10 minutes). Add water if needed to keep from burning.

Cut the turkey into bite size pieces and add them to the skillet along with the curry powder. Mix thoroughly and cook for about 2 minutes until the curry is distributed evenly and the meat is slightly seared.

Add the chicken broth to the skillet, bring to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes. Do not overcook the turkey.

When the chicken broth and curry are a smooth consistency, turn off the flame add the yogurt and coriander (cilantro), then stir to thoroughly mix everything.

Serve in bowls over brown rice.

Shown below is a photo of all the ingredients: starting in back and going left to right – chicken broth, fat free plain yogurt, cliantro (coriander), curry powder, turkey meat, onion, garlic clove, ginger root and Anaheim chili pepper. Start by cooking the brown rice. I like to use a rice cooker.

Next, cut up all the vegetables. Start by slicing the onion. This is a large onion so I am going to cut into quarters first.

Slice the onion into thin slices. This recipe works better with sliced onions rather than chopped onions. It makes for a better texture.

Now all the onions are sliced up…

Next, prepare the chili pepper by removing all the seeds and ribs.

Start by cutting off the end, then by slicing the pepper down the middle.

Scrape out all the seeds and ribs by hand.

Slice each of the pepper halves into long thin slices.

Arrange the slices into a bunch, then chop the pepper into small chunks.

Now the pepper is all chopped up …

Measure out the curry powder into a dish.

Measure out a cup of chicken broth …

Chop up the fresh coriander (cilantro). Fresh coriander goes bad real fast even when kept in the refrigerator, so only buy as much as you need.

Measure out the chopped coriander into a dish and set aside for now …

… Same thing for the yogurt … measure it out into a dish and set it aside for now …

Next, chop up the garlic clove and fresh ginger root. Here I am using a chopper, but you can do it just as easily with a good chef’s knife. Peel the ginger first.

Now the garlic and ginger is all chopped up ….

Cut the turkey meat into small bit sized chunks.

Now the meat is all chopped up and ready to go …

Now that the vegetables and meat have all been sliced and chopped and all the ingredients have been set aside in dishes, it’s time to cook. Start by adding the onions, chili pepper, garlic and ginger to a skillet. Add about 1/2 cup of water to the skillet. This is the fat-free way to cook it.

Cook over a medium flame stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Cook for about 10 minutes or so until the onions are soft and translucent.

Next, add the turkey meat …

… followed immediately by the curry powder. Keep cooking over a medium flame.

Stir everything together until the curry is evenly distributed and the meat is slighty seared. This should take about 2 minutes. Don’t overcook or burn the turkey.

Then add the chicken broth …

Cook for another 5 minutes or so. Again, don’t overcook the turkey. Cook until the sauce is of a smooth consistency.

Now turn off the flame and add the yogurt and coriander.

Stir everything together until all is thoroughly mixed. Now it is ready to serve.

Place some cooked brown rice into a bowl.

Cover with a serving of the cooked ginger turkey curry.

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