Bistro Broccoli Chowder - Hold the Parsnips...

Another fine and hearty soup from Appetite for Reduction, using one of my favorite vegetables of all time, BROCCOLI.  For anyone who does not have the pleasure of owning this fantastic cookbook, I found the recipe online here, at GoDairyfree.org.

Here in new England, the only "chowda" in most folks' bowls is clam.  For this recipe, however, we swap out our shelled friends for some broccoli, and leave behind the heavy cream and butter for some luscious potatoes and unsweetened almond milk.  Besides potatoes, the recipe calls for a parsnip, which is not one of my usual pantry staples.  Apparently, it is not Stop and Shop's either, which made me sad because I really wanted to try one in this recipe.  No parsnips to be found.

So, in steps a turnip, and we call it a day.  Turnip can be subbed in some recipes that call for parsnip.  It is described as having a "celery-like" flavor, which I thought would be perfect for a soup such as this one.

And, I was right!  This soup rocked.  Although the directions instruct you to puree HALF the soup and leave the rest a little chunky and thick.  I submerged my immersion blender in the soup pot, and literally  tapped the button, and within 6 seconds, the entire pot was pureed. So much for that... and so much for my Job Lot $15.00 immersion blender been cheap and crappy.

So, since the soup was now silky smooth, and a delightful shade of green. I decided to chop up a bunch of RAW broccoli to add some texture back.  Good call. The crunch of the raw broccoli added just the right body to the soup, and at 150 calories a serving, you can't go wrong.  Thank you, Isa.  This was a fabulous, low-cal lunch for a week. ^_^

Big Fat Taco Salad!

I'm jumping back to Appetite for Reduction, because I seriously LOVE this book!!



(Please note, I used a tiny sprinkling of Daiya vegan cheddar cheese, which is NOT in Isa's original recipe, but it was still really good)!!

Now, most folks who like to cook, or have a basic knowledge of cooking, don't actually need a recipe to make a taco salad.  The beauty of cooking with the recipes from Appetite for Reduction is that it you to take a closer look at the amounts and types of ingredients one might use on say, a simple dish like a taco salad.

For example, instead of blobs of Tofutti vegan sour cream, this recipe is topped with GUACAMAME, traditional guacamole's lighter cousin ^_^



What an innovative recipe!  Instead of the full fat and calories from two large avocados, Isa uses ONE avocado and replaces the rest with a cup of edamame (soybeans).  You season and spice the mixture the same as any other guacamole recipe: lime juice, salt, cilantro, jalapeno or cayenne, and then puree everything until smooth in a food processor.  I must say, as a DIE HARD guacamole fan, the end results of this lighter, lower fat version are quite fantastic!

Now onto the dressing...

Many taco salads in restaurants contain ground meat, and the ones that don't, are usually smothered in some cream-tastical, salty, taco-spice dressing, or loaded with cheese.  The dressing we have for this salad is more like a pourable version of a spicy salsa, mixing tomato, lime and fresh jalapeno.  When I made up our taco salads, I decided to mix the dressing right in with the black beans, then top the lettuce with that.

It made for a pretty picture, and was then easily mixed with the rest of the salad to get lots of delicious flavor in each bite.



Crumble a small handful of (baked) tortilla chips of the top from some crunch, and you are good to go.  Two bowls later... we were happy and well fed ^_^