You don’t need to spend hours at the stove to prepare delicious home-made soups.
You probably know that making home-made soups involve vegetables and spices simmering all day in a big pot on the stove. NOT ANYMORE!
Fresh veggies, a few spices and some hot water tossed in a blender will offer some of the best tasting soup you can imagine. When I discovered how easy it was, I was pleasantly surprised at the new avenue this opened up for me – and for my blender.
By preparing soups in a blender, you can create a fast and simple vegan or vegetarian meal. Just be sure you have a blender that has enough horsepower to blend continuously for three to five minutes on high speed. If your blender doesn’t have that power, chances are good you’ll experience motor burnout and your dreams of homemade soup for lunch will be a distant memory.
When I bought my high-powered blender from Cuisinart, I knew I would often use it to make smoothies and ice cream, and for mixing batters. But I had no idea how often I would use it for making soups. Preparing soups wasn’t a priority for me. It wasn’t until I saw a live demo that the light went on. Within minutes, I had tasted a sample of soup I would be proud to make at home.
One of the coolest things about making soups in your blender is that you control all of the ingredients that are making their way into your body.
You can control the amount of salt, too, and I suggest adding the salt at the end of the process. Taste. Add a little more, if needed. Trust me – your body will thank you.
Some soups made in the blender could be considered ‘raw’ soups. That’s because the temperature stays low and no real cooking is required to soften the veggies, since they are blended to bits. The warm water and heat from the friction of the blade will not heat the soup enough to break down the beneficial enzymes in your ingredients. Enzyme breakdown occurs at 118°F (about 48°C). I don’t know about you, but I want all of the good stuff going into my body.
INGREDIENTS
Some kind of watery vegetables and/or greens. For example tomato, zucchini, celery, spinach, red bell pepper, Romaine lettuce, chard, kale.
Try not to mix together too much red and green or the colour won't be so great. One tomato in an otherwise green soup will be fine, but try to keep it either mostly red or green.
Water to thin out the soup a little bit.
Some kind of citrus juice, lemon, lime or orange to perk up the flavour.
Salty seasoning. Natural sea salt or miso (fermented soybean paste) gives it a nice deep flavour similar to what you would get from vegetable stock or bouillon.
Pungent seasonings such as fresh herbs and spices, garlic, onion, a bit of curry powder. Some kind of fat to make the soup creamy.
You can use avocado, olive oil or soaked nuts and seeds.
Instructions
Use a blender to get a nice creamy consistency.
Coarsely chop zucchini (no need to peel it because you get a lot of nutrients in the peel),
Chop celery.
Cut a tomato roughly, no need to remove the seeds since it's a blended soup.
Add some spinach, Swiss chard or kale.
Add basil (pungent herb), use quite a bit so it's both a pungent flavor and another green.
Add some water (looks like about 2 cups).
Seasonings: lemon juice, natural sea salt and miso (mellow white miso) – about a tablespoon
Pungent seasonings: crushed garlic, green onions, a little bit of cayenne pepper.
Blend all the ingredients and add the fat (avocado) afterward.
Blend until the soup has liquefied.
Cut avocado in half, twist to separate. Scoop half the avocado right into the blender. You can remove the avocado stone by pressing your knife into it just a bit and twisting the avocado while holding the blade of the knife still.
Blend again, just enough to blend the avocado in. If you over-blend avocados it can ruin the flavor and color.
You can serve in a bowl, or put it into a jar with a tight-fitting lid to take with you.