Today's Recipe: Tortilla Soup, and Yesterday's Green Lemonade Review

So today I cooked Tortilla Soup from the Appetite for Reduction cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz for dinner and must I say it is DELICIOUS. I love tortilla soup, but I'm picky about it. I don't like it too much on the tomato soup side, so I never order it when I'm at restaurants because I'm just not willing to take that risk. The only thing I would change about this recipe the next time around is I would scale down the spice. This baby has HEAT.








Vegan Tortilla Soup

Recipe courtesy of Appetite for Reduction




Ingredients:

1 tsp olive oil

1 small yellow onion, sliced thinly

2 jalapenos, seeded and sliced thinly

1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped into 1/2 in. pieces

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp salt

24 oz whole tomatoes

24 oz vegetable broth

4 oz baked tortilla chips (~2 cups)

1 tbs ground cumin

1 (15 oz) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup frozen corn

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

juice from 1 lime 

Preheat a 4 quart pot over medium-high heat
Saute the onions, jalapenos and green pepper in the oil until the onions are translucent, about 5 min. use a little nonstick cooking spray or broth, if needed, to keep it from burning
Add the garlic, red pepper flakes and salt and saute for another minute
Break up the tomatoes with your fingers and add them to the pot, including the juice
Fill the tomato can with broth and add it in
Mix in the cumin
Crush 2 oz of the chips into crumbs and add to the pot
Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat to simmer, add the beans, corn and cilantro and simmer for 5 min.
Add lime juice, ladle soup into bowls
Crumble remaining chips over the top, garnish with cilantro and serve.


Yield: Serves 4











As for yesterday's green lemonade recipe? At the risk of sounding redundant there was too much green, not enough lemonade. I think the recipe could use more apple and lemon- but I have two more recipes to try out so hopefully I'll find my Holy Grail. Tomorrow I'll have another recipe and a review. Fingers crossed I find what I have been craving!

Appetite For Reduction: 125 Fast and Filling Low Fat Recipes- The First Impression

Appetitive For Reduction: 125 Fast and Filling Low-Fat Recipes is written by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, which is also the author of Veganomicon and runs the website Post-Punk Kitchen, a goldmine for vegan recipes. It goes without saying that these are 125 recipes in this book, all ranging between 200 and 400 calories per serving. They are all plant based, low in saturated fat and sugar, and high in fiber. There are many gluten and soy-free options available for those with dietary restrictions. 

There are eight chapters in this book dedicated to different food groupings:
1: Full-On Salads
2: Totally Stuffable Sides
3: Rub-Your-Tummy Veggies
4: Main Event Beans
5: Sink-Your-Teeth-Into Tofu and Tempeh
6: Talk Pasta to Me (& Noodles)
7: Soul-Satisfying Soups
8: Comfort Curries, Chili, and Stews

There is a section explain nutrition and all of the recipes have the nutrition information per serving. Gluten-free, soy-free, items taking 39 minutes or less to cook, and recipes with downtime are all labeled with recipe icons. 

Veganomicon- The Review

In an attempt to broaden my food horizons and to ween myself off of processed, prepackaged vegan and vegetarian foods I ordered two cookbooks, Veganomicon, as suggested by my friend Christi Gregurich, and Appetite For Reduction: 125 Fast and Low Filling Low-Fat Vegan Recipes just because the sheer number of positive reviews caught my eye. I didn't realize until the books were delivered into my hot little hands that these books shared an author- Veganomicon was composed by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, while Appetite for Reduction was written by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I have yet to make anything in either of these books because I haven't been grocery shopping since I've gotten them, but I've had a chance to thumb through them and here's my first impressions of Veganomicon. My impressions of Appetite For Reduction is coming tomorrow, y'all!

One of the first things I noticed about Veganomicon was the vast variety of recipes. There are over 250 recipes organized into !seventeen! different categories-
1: Snacks, Appetizers, Little Meals, Dips and Spreads
2: Brunch
3: Salads and Dressings
4: Dressings
5: Sammiches
6: Vegetables
7: Grains
8: Beans
9: Tofu, Tempeh and Seitan
10: Soups
11: Casseroles
12: One-pot Meals and Stove-Top Specialties
13: Pasta, Noodles and Risotto
14: Sauces and Fillings
15: Breads, Muffins and Scones
16: Cookies and Bars
17: Desserts

Woo, that's a mouthful. Also included are guides for lower-fat cooking, how to cook a vegetable,a grain and a bean, cooking and prepping terminology, menus, and pantry staples. There's something in this massive cookbook for everyone, and is ripe with information for the beginning vegan. Besides- its name is inspired by Evil Dead 2- what's not to love? There's a wide range of cuisines represented in this cookbook, and I'm pleased that they don't depend on synthetic meats, which totally ick me out. No mature way to say it. Fake meats suck. So far my first impression has been overwhelmingly positive- but we haven't put this cookbook to the real test yet. I'm looking forward to testing out some of these recipes in the upcoming weeks.