Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Green Pea Mushroom Soup for Dinner

The quest to eat clean and sensibly sometimes take a step back when all try to balance out the good and bad. While I do not consider myself to be super-strict with my diet (such as not eating meat, as it will cause cancer or not drinking cow's milk, as it will not be sustainable), i would classify myself and my wife as being "conscious" about what we eat.
Today, I will share what we had for dinner yesterday which is again, simple to make and gives about 150kcal with about 150mg of potassium 5grams of fiber, 20 grams of carbs, 7grams of fat (0f which up to 6 is unsaturated), 100mg of sodium and adequate amount of Vitamin A and B, just by making a green pea with mushroom soup. This will serve up to 2.5 portion which you can keep for the next day too.
What you need (for two person, as i am cooking for wifey too)
200grams of green peas, frozen or fresh is ok.
1 can of Campbell cream of mushroom (yes, this is today's canned food)
1 equal can of water (you can use the can to proportion)
1 food processor or blender

The idea came from watching some food channel show when they were making the green pea soup. While they sieve the puree, i decided to let them all into the soup - afterall, fiber is good for your gastrointestinal health. You can boil the green peas r 5minutes or microwave them for 2 minutes+2minutes. Either way is fine. But if you microwave them, please do not use any water and stir during after the first 2minutes cycle. This way, the green peas will not be overcooked. Reason why i prefer to use microwave is because i do not want to lose some of the nutrition by boiling them in the water - and the water that is used for boiling, will be thrown away! Of course there are option to use the water back into the cream of mushroom, which i should had considered. You know how the mind works sometimes - especially if you are an engineer and trying to maximize and cut down on energy usage, or washing afterwards.

It is a bit tricky to mash up the peas in a 1980's blender (National brand, no less), but i have to get it done by batches. Careful of the piping hot peas as it heats up the glass surface. Once the peas is mashed up, place the cream of mushroom into the same pot and add adequate water (not too much, if you want/like your soup thicker) and cook over low heat. As the peas and the cream is technically already cooked, the process is more to heat up the mixture and to get a consistent non-chunky texture.

The soup will be done in about 5 minutes and you can then serve them in a bowl or a soup plate. As I am learning to teach my body to utilise fat for energy, a spoonful of olive oil was included at the top of the soup - both for energy and garnishing purposes. Now, don't the so looked like it could come from a worthy restaurant?

As the soup alone only offers 150kcal, the spoonful of olive oil actually added another 100kcal. With the homemade bread with SCS butter, the whole package comes up close to 400kcal with energy coming primary from oil (olive and butter).
The durian was, good.
The soup tasted sweet and it actually covered the taste of the mushroom soup. Improvement should be made by not using the canned soup and replace it with milk to obtain some creaminess. All in all, with the slight savoury taste of the bread with SCS butter, and the noticeable taste of olive oil, this 400kcal was winner for dinner.





4 comments:

  1. for the green peas, i only microwave them 1m20s + 1m20s. 4 minutes total make them dry, in my oven.

    Very good idea. i usually have canned tuna, tomato soup and cream soup in the pantry as emergency food supply.

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  2. Khoo - i have suprise for you with Tuna. :) I already wrote that post, and due out this Friday. As working parents struggling to eat healthily and with a bit of variety, i know how it is with emergency food supply when we ran out of idea to eat...

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  3. lanatir - minimal browning. Bawang goreng is not healthy, but delicious.

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