Longevity Soup

Longevity Soup

Let's see, in the month since I last posted, I needed an antibiotic for something, a week later I had a severe reaction to the antibiotic and a side effect of the drug used to treat the reaction (it did help) is sleeplessness. I am now at an age that if I were involved in an incident, the news anchor would be reporting, "An elderly woman..." Everything I took to help a problem caused the next problem. I think that my age means my body handles these drugs differently than it did years ago. 

So when I saw this recipe pop on social media, the name caught my attention. Eating for longevity. Eating for independence. That should be our goal now. This recipe contains 9 superfoods. You can read all about the nutritional benefits here at Joy Bauer's website. She calls this a pot of goodness. 

Now, I've been a vegetable soup lover forever. Most of the time I don't use a recipe. I have tried some and found variations that I like. Couldn't hurt to try another one. So glad I did.

Oh my goodness! What a delicious recipe. Joy Bauer was right—a pot of goodness. And, despite the long list of ingredients, it was simple to make. It involves opening cans, some chopping and measuring a couple of spices. I already had celery washed and "de-stringed" in the refrigerator. And the recipe calls for "1 to 2 cups" or "2 to 3 handfuls." That says amounts aren't very specific, so I didn't measure any of the vegetables. Just a rough chop and toss some in. 

Peeling carrots would have taken time, but I didn't have any. I ordered carrots but they were left out of my delivery. (Did I mention I hit a deer and my car is in the shop? Needed to have groceries delivered.) Of course, you could leave them out, but the pot of soup looked like it needed that orange color. So I added some frozen mixed vegetables. No peeling. No slicing. Made the prep even easier.

This soup is one of the best soups I've made. It's well seasoned. It' has a creamy broth because you've pureed beans and broth. I forgot to remove the rosemary before I added the spinach. When I added that much extra green, I almost never found it! I had thought I'd share some of the soup but I couldn't share until I removed that rosemary. Putting a hard stem in your mouth is not a good surprise. I finally spied the last bit as I was putting the soup into a container. 

This is how I made it. I made small tweaks. My garlic cloves were huge so I only used 2 instead of 3. I subbed the mixed vegetables for fresh carrots. I also measured out 3 cups of broth and poured in the pot, then in that 4-cup measuring cup I added that last cup of broth and the beans and used an immersion blender to puree. Easier than washing the blender. Again, check out the original recipe for the options she offers. 

LONGEVITY SOUP

2 (15-oz) cans small white beans, drained & rinsed (I used navy beans)

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth, divided  

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced 

2 ribs celery, chopped

About 1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetables (instead of the carrots)

1 to 2 cups broccoli florets, chopped

1 to 2 cups cauliflower florets, chopped

2 cups canned crushed tomatoes (a 15-oz can)

1 (14.5 oz) can stewed tomatoes

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

2 fresh rosemary sprigs

1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

2 to 3 handfuls fresh spinach, roughly chopped

Ground black pepper, to taste 

In a blender, combine 1 can of drained beans and 1 cup of broth and puree until smooth. Set aside.

Generously coat of pot with cooking spray and warm over medium heat. Add the onion, and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the celery, 3 cups of broth, frozen mixed vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, crushed tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, oregano, basil, the 2nd can of beans and rosemary.

Stir. Bring to a boil, Reduce heat and simmer about 25 minutes uncovered.

REMOVE the rosemary. Add the pureed beans and spinach. Simmer another 10 minutes, until spinach wilts. 

This is a long list of ingredients and sometimes I stop looking when I see this kind of list. But it took me about 15 minutes to have everything in the pot. Don't let the ingredient list scare you off. It's worth the chopping.

Fun note:  After I had made the soup, eaten lunch, cleaned up the kitchen, our doorbell rang. It was the grocery delivery driver. He discovered that the carrots were left out my order and drove back to bring them.