Here's a recipe that's like a double-booked streetwalker: fast, cheap, and easy!!
Corn is in season right now, so by all means use fresh corn! This soup is virtually sodium-free, fat-free, and 100% vegetarian. It's also DELICIOUS!!
You'll need:
6-7 ears fresh corn
1 bunch leeks (3-4 stalks)
2 green bell peppers
1 onion
6 carrots
2-3 tomatoes (or one can no salt added tomatoes)
Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy Seasoning
Start by cutting the green part off the leeks (the part that's too tough to eat.) Wash the green parts, and put them in a stock pot with the bell peppers, seeded, the onions, and the carrots. Cover with water (about 3 quarts). Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 3-4 hours.
Meanwhile, cut the kernels off of the corn and reserve. Add the cobs to the stockpot, along with about 2 teaspoons of Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy Seasoning. (You may add salt or salt substitute if you wish.)
Slice the edible portion of each leek lengthwise, and fan the resulting "sheets" under running water to remove all traces of sand. Slice the leeks crosswise into quarter inch slices.
One the broth is flavored to your liking, drain through a chinois to remove the cooked vegetables and discard them. Adjust the seasoning of the broth if needed, then add the corn kernels, leek slices, and the tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped. Simmer until leeks become translucent; serve.
This soup is delish as a summer lunch, or a supper side dish!
This steaming bowl of Chicken Vegetable Soup has less than 100 mg of sodium and virtually no fat per generous 16 oz jar!
How did the Low Sodium Queen deliver such delicious soup realness? By controlling the sodium that went in, she controls the sodium in each portion! It's simple math!
So here's how she did it:
She started with 3 quarts of the chicken stock she made the day before, along with the chicken meat she had saved from the process. Thigh meat works great for soup as is has a bit more flavor than the white meat. She made the stock with no salt, so it is sodium free.
She brought the broth and meat to a boil, and to it she added about a cup of baby carrots (the kind you buy at the grocery to snack on for lunch), 3 fresh tomatoes, peeled and quartered, 2 large zucchini squash, sliced lengthwise and then chopped into 1/4 thick "half moons", and about 5 yellow squash, cut the same way. That's it! You can add additional seasoning if you need it! TLSQ added 1/4 teaspoon salt.
The chicken is already cooked, and the vegetables cook quickly, so before she put the soup on, she cleaned her jars and put them on to boil so she could can this soup for later!
Once the soup was cooked and simmering, and the jars had boiled 10 minutes, the rest it easy! Each jar is lifted from the boiling water and drained, and filled about 1/2 full of vegetables and meat, using a slotted spoon. Then, a ladle is used to fill the jar with liquid, leaving 1" of headspace at the top of each jar. Once the jars are properly filled, wipe the rims with a clean, damp paper towel, apply the lids and rings, and they are ready to process!
Fill the canner with about 3" of water and allow it to come to a boil while you fill the jars. (Be sure to follow the instructions for your canner if they are different!) Place the jars on the rack in the bottom of the canner, attach the lid, and let the canner heat for 10 minutes while a stready stream of steam escapes the vent pipe. This ensures there are no air bubbles in the canner that would prevent it from pressurizing evenly.
After the canner has vented 10 minutes, place the pressure regulator onto the vent pipe. If your canner has variable pressure settings (indicated by 3 different holes with numbers) use the 10 pound setting at normal altitudes. If you are more than 2,000 ft above sea level, see the USDA guidelines for proper pressure settings and times. Once the weight is in place, the canner will begin to pressurize.
The regulator does it job of maintaining pressure in the vessel by closing off the vent pipe when the pressure is below the set point, and rising on the column of steam when the pressure rises above the set point to allow steam to escape and reduce the pressure. The gauge does nothing to control the pressure (some canners don't even have a gauge) but simply confirms that the unit is pressurized.
Once the canner has reach the set pressure level with the stove set on high, the regulator will rise slightly, and "rattle" or "dance" steadily. While the regulator weight will keep the pot safely within the desired pressure range, the constant escape of steam can cause it to boil dry prematurely. So, when the pressure reaches the desired level and the regulator begins to rise, lower the temperature gradually until the regulator "dances" about every 15 seconds- 4 times a minute. This video clip shows what it sounds like.
You may also freeze this recipe in plastic freezer containers.
Oh, and here's the math:
From 3 quarts of stock + vegetables and meat, we yielded 4 quarts of soup = 8 pint jars.
1/4 teaspoon salt= 800 mg sodium / 8 jars = 100 mg per jar!
Most soup cans give nutritional values in 1 cup servings, so if you used that convention for comparison, this soup would have 50mg sodium per 8oz serving!!
It's only broth! But what delicious broth it is!
Broth, or stock, is a basic ingredient that forms the base for most soups, and is used in many other recipes as well. A good broth is not difficult to make, and the time spent is well worth the effort! It's easy to make large batches, and there are several way to preserve it to have on hand to use whenever your recipe calls for it!
Most commercially available broths and stocks are full of sodium. In fact, they typically get most of their flavor from salt, and tend to be very clear and otherwise flavorless. Even the "lower sodium" versions still have more sodium than they should! Making your own broth with fresh meats and vegetables allows you to control the salt, flavors and strength to suit your tastes and needs.
Today, the Low Sodium Queen made 3 batches, all at once. She made a light chicken broth to use in vegetable soup, and saved the white meat from the breasts to make low sodium chicken salad for her lunches this week. She used the rest of the chicken to make a darker stock to store for use in recipes as needed. And she made a batch of beef stock that she's planning to use for vegetable beef soup. Here's how the day went:
She started with 2 whole chickens, and about 6 pounds of beef soup bones. If your local grocer doesn't have packaged soup bones in the meat case, ask the butcher. While not all grocers break down meat in-store, the Queen has found that most ethnic grocers sell beef bones right in the meat case.
If you want to keep the white meat separate from the rest of the chicken, use a cleaver or large knife to separate the breasts from the rest of the bird. You don't really have to be neat and exacting in your butchering, you just want to get them apart so they can be used separately.
For the light chicken stock, put the breasts into a large pot and cover with about 6 quarts of cold water. Add 2 onions, cubed, and about 2 cups each of celery and carrots, cubed to about an inch or so. Add about 1/4 cup each of dried rosemary and dried oregano, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about an hour. After about an hour, check the breast meat for doneness. Once it's cooked, remove the breasts, allow them to cool slightly, and remove the meat from the bones. Save the meat for another use and return the bones to the pot. Continue to simmer for 6-8 hours for flavors to fully develop.
To make a more flavorful chicken stock, and always for beef stock, the bones should be roasted for about an hour at 400 degrees to let their flavors develop. This is a pan of about 6 pounds of beef bones, plus another pan with the remains of the 2 whole chickens after the breasts were removed.
After roasting for about an hour or so, the 2 pans of bones are transferred to stockpots, and covered with water. Deglaze the pans and add the rich gravy to the broth. Add onions, celery, and seasoning as above, then bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook 6-8 hours, until flavors are fully developed.
Once the stock is fully cooked and flavored to your liking, pour the stock through a collander into a large bowl or refrigerator container. Allow the bone mixture to cool slightly, and pick away any large pieces of meat for soups, salads, etc. Discard the rest.
Strain the broth again through a chinois lined with cheescloth. Skim a much fat from the top of the broth as possible. Cool the broth, then refrigerate the remainder until all remaining fat congeals at the top of the container. Remove the congealed fat and you will have 100% fat free, sodium free broth! At refrigerator temperature, your protein-rich broth may congeal into consomme, but once it's reheated it will return to it's liquid state.
Broth may be refrigerated for 3-4 days, or frozen for about 6 months. You can also can your broth in jars so it is shelf stable following the instructions for steam-pressure canning.
