Mmmmmm Tomato Soup

One of my favorite soups is tomato.  I’ve tried different recipes with various forms of success.

While visiting my friend Chef Joey at his restaurant The Green Gourmet, I had the pleasure of trying his version of Tomato Basil Soup.  It was so good that I asked him if I could please have the recipe.  

He said to me, “This recipe is so easy, you don’t even have to write anything down.  Here is all you need:”

• Pour some olive oil and cover the bottom of the soup pot.
• Add a chopped onion, stir while frying them until the onions are clear but don’t brown them.
• Then add the secret ingredient… a can of tomato juice.
• Then add a handful of chopped fresh basil.
• Finally, use an immersion blender.

Sounds too easy, right?  Easy and very good and I made this at home recently.  My husband loved it so I know it is a winner.  I think I will continue using this particular recipe from now on.

Here are a couple of other alternatives for making tomato soup:

The recipe presented in this video calls for whole tomatoes and straining afterward to rid the soup of chunks.  It also uses a lot of butter and heavy cream.

This next recipe from The Food Network for Homemade Tomato Soup is also rather fatty.  This recipe does use olive oil for the vegetables rather than butter, but still uses heavy cream and butter.  In this recipe the cook is using canned tomatoes. 

In the comment section below, please feel free to tell me your favorite recipe, suggestions, and other thoughts about tomato soup.

Restaurant Food

When you are as health conscious as I am about what you put into your body, restaurants come up short in most cases.

Fast foods from restaurants like McDonalds™, Burger King™, and Taco Bell™ are full of sodium, fat and other preservatives that are usually unpronounceable.

Some of these fast food places offer healthy alternatives.  However, the healthy part is that most of these alternatives don’t have as much fat but are still loaded down with sodium and preservatives.

Chain restaurants such as Chili’s™, Applebee’s™, and Texas Roadhouse™, are as bad as the fast food places when it comes to fat and sodium levels.

Diatfacts.com gives a list of many restaurants, the foods they offer and their nutritional values.

Look at McDonald’s Asian Salad™ without the chicken and dressing –low calories and low sodium.  However, many people don’t eat it plain without the dressing or the chicken.  Big difference with the chicken but no dressing the calories aren’t so bad but the sodium levels are huge.  If you add the dressing the sodium levels go even higher. 

Now look at a Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad from Chili’s Bar & Grill™.  It’s worse than the one you can get from McDonald's™.

It is hard for the health conscious to eat out.  That’s why when we went to Florida we visited a friend of mine and his restaurant in Delray Beach, The Green Gourmet.  I will be writing a feature story on Chef Joey Giannuzzi and his wonderful restaurant soon.

What makes the Green Gourmet special?  Organic foods, alternatives to salt, and a chef who cares about his patrons on a personal level.  I’ve even walked away with one of his recipes that I will be sharing soon.

While not many areas have a restaurant like the Green Gourmet, there are ways of getting “healthier” alternatives at the chains.

When ordering:

• Ask that no extra salt be used when preparing your dish.
• When ordering a salad, ask for the dressing on the side and don’t use as much of it.
• Ask for just a simple vinaigrette for a dressing  instead of the heavier dressings.

In the comment section below, please feel free to tell me about your favorite restaurant or healthy alternatives you have found for eating out.