Trick #1: Easy, Healthy, Low-Cal, Low(ish)-Sodium Veggie Soup

This soup is heavy on flavor and light on calories. I didn't think it could be done, but 3 cheers to Alton Brown for coming up with this one! (I love that man - Good Eats is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine). I took Alton's original recipe and made a few tweaks, and it was a big hit. One major tweak I made here, and that I'm making in most other soup recipes lately, is cutting the amount of chicken broth or bouillon by half in order to cut the salt in the soup. Soups have the potential to be really healthy, but are often held back by too much salt. Unleash their full potential - load 'em with veggies and herbs and hold back the salt!

Bre's Garden Vegetable Soup a la Alton Brown

Ingredients: 

4 Tbl olive or coconut oil

2 cups chopped leeks (Cheat: onions or shallots instead)

2 Tbl minced garlic

Salt

2 cups carrots, chopped into rounds

2 cups diced potatoes

2 cups fresh green beans broken in 3/4 inch pieces (Cheat: go with frozen or canned)

1 quart chicken or vegetable broth + 1 quart water
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

4 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes (Cheat: go with no-salt-added canned, diced tomatoes)

2 ears corn, kernels removed (Cheat: frozen corn, 2 cups)

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (DO NOT cheat and use dried - use fresh if you can!)

Juice of 1/2 a lemon (again, no cheating here - you get a big flavor pay-off from the fresh lemon)

PLUS: Any other veggies as desired - I added zucchini. Kale or spinach could even be added in at the last-minute for an extra boost of greens.

PLUS: Chicken or beef if you don't want to keep this a veggie-only dish.

Steps:

1. Put a stockpot on medium-low heat. Add oil. Add leeks (or onions) and garlic, and a bit of salt. Sweat the onions and garlic until softened, about 7-8 minutes. 

2. Add carrots, potatoes, and green beans and cook for 4-5 more minutes.

3. Add broth and water and bring to a boil.

4. Add the rest of your ingredients. Reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for about 25-30 minutes, or until veggies are fork tender. 

5. Enjoy!