January FotM: [Healthy] Soups and Stews

Happy New Year!  ….a little late, we know.

We’re trying our best to start the new year off right, but with all of the snow we’ve had in the Chicagoland area, we still want our comfort foods!  For us that means lots of soups and stews, which can sometimes get a little fat-filled and calorie dense.  So, this month, we’re talking about healthier versions of these classic comfort foods.

check out our recipe for

Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup with Rosemary & Chipotle

Storage

Soups, stews and stocks should always be cooled before refrigerating or freezing to prevent the growth of harmful bacterias.  You can do this by placing the pot of soup directly into a sink full of ice water (being careful not to dump the soup, or water it down, of course!), or by allowing it to cool in the storage container on the counter.  After cooling, soup can be kept refrigerated for about 3 days or frozen up to 6 months (any longer and you risk freezer burn).  Be sure to leave about ½” of headspace when freezing to allow for expansion.

Of course, stocks and many soups can be pressure canned as well.  When canning, be sure to use only recipes written for canning and to follow them exactly, otherwise you run the risk of botulism and other foodborne illnesses.

Recipes

There are so many wonderful recipes available in a variety of places.  Here are a few of our favorite places to dig around for good recipes:

• MarthaStewart.com
• WholeLiving.com
• TastyKitchen.com
• Pinterest.com (Kassy has a pinboard dedicated entirely to soups and stews and a bunch of soup/stew recipes on her “recipes I love” board)
• Kassy has a post about canning chicken stock on her blog

Make it HEALTHY!

Most often, recipes for soups and stews are very forgiving and easy to tweak.  You can easily make small changes to recipes to cut the fat and calories without sacrificing the flavor by:

• reducing the oil/butter (sometimes you can get away with only using half!) or replacing half (or all, if you can get away with it) of the butter/oil for healthier oils such as coconut oil or avocado oil
• reduce heavy cream when called for or substitute with a lower fat milk, or even better, almond milk…  in some cases, when making a “cream of” vegetable soup, you can even get away with omitting any dairy at all as long as you give it a good blend (as our favorite broccoli soup demonstrates)

What’s your favorite soup recipe?