Two-Can Ten-Minute Homemade Tomato Soup ♥ Quick Recipe

Today's easy homemade soup recipe: Tomato soup made from scratch in just ten minutes. No "weird" ingredients like canned tomato soup and lower in calories, too.

So I suspect that purists won't consider this homemade soup. After all, I didn't till the soil to grow the tomatoes and I certainly didn't toil over a hot stove canning summer tomatoes, all to toss together an easy, steaming bowl of tomato soup during the cold and damp of a Midwestern winter.

But here's why for me, Two-Can Ten-Minute Homemade Tomato Soup not only qualifies, it rocks. Let's look at the ingredient lists.

Diced Tomatoes: Tomatoes.*
Tomato Sauce: Tomato Concentrate, Salt, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Citric Acid, Natural Flavors, Dried Bell Pepper.*
* Caveat: It took careful examination of several labels to find diced tomatoes and tomato sauce without sugar.

versus

Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup (Australia**): Tomato Puree, Sugar, Onions, Modified Tapioca Starch, Salt, Garlic, Acidity Regulator, Natural Flavors, Xanthum Gum, Natural Food Color, Herbs, Spices.
Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup (United States**): Tomato Puree, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Wheat Flour, Water, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Flavoring, Citric Acid, Sea Salt, Ascorbic Acid, Monopotassium Phosphate.
** Fascinating, the difference in the ingredient lists between canned tomato soup in Australia and canned tomato soup in the U.S. Are the soups actually different or do the labels reflect differences in labeling laws?

Besides, did I mention it takes just ten minutes to make this soup? That's start-to-finish, with plenty of hands-off time to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Yahoo, lunch!
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Why I Switched from Weight Watchers to Medifast

No recipe today but instead a story, one of Choice and Hope and Compromise.

You'll find the story posted on Kitchen Parade, Why I Switched from Weight Watchers to Medifast. There's a lively discussion there, come join the chatter!

A Veggie Venture is home of 'veggie evangelist' Alanna Kellogg and the
famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.
© Copyright Kitchen Parade 2013

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How to Roast a Pepper (Capsicum) on a Gas Stove ♥ Techniques, Tricks & Tips

Today's quick & easy way to roast one or two sweet peppers or hot chilies right on the stove, a gas stove, that is.

To roast a pepper – the sweet peppers like green bell peppers, yellow and orange bell peppers and especially red bell peppers – is to change not only its texture but its flavor. A raw pepper is wet and crunchy, a roasted pepper is slippery and smoky.

This same technique works not only with sweet peppers but also with hot chile peppers with a little or a lot of heat. My favorite pepper for roasting is a poblano chile (as picture) but I've also roasted jalapeños and other chiles.

Mostly it's a hands-off operation, just throw the pepper on the fire, then carry on in the kitchen – no wandering off, now, it's not that hands-off! – keeping an eye on the roasting process, turning as needed.

The technique is best for roasting one or two peppers, for a whole trayful, you'll want to follow this technique that works in both gas and electric ovens, How to Roast Peppers in the Oven.

And I should add one more thing, and that's that when I was cooking on a typical kitchen stove, I didn't have much luck roasting peppers this way, it seemed to just take too long. So it's possible that this technique works only with high-BTU commercial stovetops like Viking and Wolf. Or maybe you have more patience than I!
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Delicious Dippers: Cantucci (or Cantuccini, or Biscotti)

Biscotti derives from the Latin  "bis coctus", or "twice baked". Cantucci (or cantuccini) is a"dry" type, first documented in Prato, Italy in the 13th century as "biscotti di Prato" These cookies were made for dipping - originally in vin santo (sweet wine) but I think they taste good dipped into just about any beverage but not so easy to eat alone - you could chip a tooth on these things if you don't dip 'em. They taste wonderful when dipped and I'm serious about not waiting until you get your hands on some vin santo - dip them with whatever's at hand.

My hair stylist brought these in (along with a selection of other delicious cookies) when I went in for a pre-Christmas appointment. With no vin santo in sight, I dipped my cookie into herbal mint tea and kind of fell in love and my stylist very kindly sent me the recipe, which I adapted slightly.

There are endless combinations - next batch is going to be dried sour cherry and hazelnut.

One of the two logs, after kneading.

The only liquid besides sugar - which in baked goods world is considered a wet ingredient - are the two eggs and the dough looks impossibly dry and crumbly. When you knead it, it just barely holds together.

Slightly flattened, before the first bake.

After the first bake.

After the first bake, when you cut the logs into 1/2" slices, there are some end pieces left over, a.k.a. "the cook's treats".

You stand them up to bake the second time and they're done when they're just a little soft in the middle.

After the 2nd bake, let them cool completely.

RECIPE: CANTUCCI

Makes: Approximately 2 dozen
Equipment: baking sheet, parchment or silicone baking mat, wire cooling rack, microplane grater.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 lemon (you will only be using the zest)
• 1 3/4 cups (7 3/4 ounces) all-purpose white unbleached flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole almonds, toasted (toasting method at the bottom of the recipe)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoons almond extract (or vanilla extract)

Preparation:

• Pre-heat the oven to 375F, rack in the middle.
• Add the sugar to a large mixing bowl. Using a microplane grater, grate the lemon zest directly into the bowl. Using your fingers, rub the zest into the sugar. If you're not weighing your flour, stir it with a fork to fluff it up. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup (overfilling it) and level it using the straight edge of a dinner knife and add the measured flour to the mixing bowl.
• Place the almonds in a food processor and pulse for about 10 times or until the nuts are very coarsely chopped. Stir the nuts into the flour mixture.
• In a small bowl, combine the eggs and almond extract stirring to an homogeneous mixture - the egg shouldn't be streaky.
• Combine the egg mixture with the dry ingredients stirring with a wooden spoon. It's going to be very stiff and crumbly. I used my (impeccably clean) hands.
• Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead lightly 7 or 8 times to bring the dough together. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Shape each portion into a 6-inch long roll. Place the rolls 6 inches apart on a parchment-covered baking sheet (or one lined with a silicone baking mat). Pat the rolls down to 1" in height. Bake at 375F for25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack.
• Cut each roll crosswise into 12 one-half inch slices. Stand the slices up on the baking sheet. Bake 14 minutes or until the cookies are just slightly soft in the middle. Remove the slices to the wire rack and cool completely. Once cooled, these should keep for a week in an airtight container.

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Best Vegetable Recipes of 2012 ♥ Personal Favorites

The best vegetable recipes of 2012 from A Veggie Venture, just one per month, all in one handy spot for easy reference.

It's that time of year, the week when we food bloggers look back over a year's worth of recipes and pick our favorites! I love-love-love this process! It really helps us hone our recipe collections, highlighting the best of the already very good, especially for sites like A Veggie Venture and my food column Kitchen Parade which by design, already post only really good recipes, the ones that work, the ones that are special or especially useful. (Here's the 2012 favorite recipes from Kitchen Parade too.)

But I also love all the many sources of "best of the year" lists for movies, books, gadgets, etc. So this year, I'm collecting "best of the year" lists on Pinterest. Follow me there and you'll see all the new entries over the next couple of weeks on this board, Best of the Year Lists & Favorites.

But okay, here you go, my favorite recipes for 2012. Do we share some favorites? Have I completely missed one you loved? Let me know in the comments!
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Good Luck for 2013: New Year's Soup Recipe ♥ with Black-eyed Peas & Collard Greens

Today's soup recipe: Easy, healthy and satisfying, a good way to kick off the new year (even a few days early!) after the indulgence of the holiday. For Weight Watchers, just 2 points (PointsPlus) and 1 point (Old Points).

So how did 2012 treat you? Mine was just swell, thanks for asking. (And yours? Do tell!) Should credit be given to this lovely little soup that I cooked up for New Years a year ago? Maybe! You see, by southern tradition, black-eyed peas bring "good fortune" to the new year and greens – any green, that's collard greens, turnip greens, kale, chard, etc – bring "financial success".

And no bitter medicine, this soup. It really hits a sweet spot with just a tiny touch of underlying heat. It's a vegan soup, though no one will likely notice. On the other hand, a little ham or bacon wouldn't hurt here (Note to Vegetarians). Meat isn't needed, mind you, but it would just add a protein component and calories that might especially satisfy, say, the menfolk at the table.

DO BLACK-EYED PEAS NEED TO SOAK BEFORE GETTING COOKED? Great news, they don't! So this soup is easy to make right now, ASAP. You might even have all the ingredients on hand!
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Easy-Easy Healthy Holiday Appetizers: Party Rye with Tomato & Cucumber ♥

Today's easy appetizer recipe, red and green for the holidays but fresh and festive for summer, too. Just one Weight Watchers point!

Scramble mode, that's me just before a party's to start, that rush-rush hour or so when there will be exactly enough time to get everything done but not a minute, not a second, more. How does that happen anyway?

But here's an appetizer I used to keep in my back pocket, just in case I really ran short of time and the appetizer I'd planned, more elegant but more fussy, just wasn't going to happen. But now I just put these out on purpose, because people like them. There's nothing unfamiliar or mysterious about this, you also can tell, hey, it looks fresh and healthy. So these just go, one by one, some people back for seconds and thirds, until the platter is empty.

I hesitate to call this a recipe, really, it's more like a visual suggestion, an eyeball reminder. Buy a packet of those small party squares (I'm partial to the rye ones, more flavor), slather on a little Boursin or something similar, then add thin slices of tomato and cucumber. The real trick though? The bit of seasoning salt on top!
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