Pureed Vegetable Soups

Pureed Curried-Cauliflower Soup with Florets.

I recently received a gift from my two best friends: a Breville Juice & Blend. The juicer and blender 'attachments' share one powerful motorized base. I've only had it for a few weeks, but I have made numerous pureed vegetables soups that are not only low in calories, but absolutely delicious, inexpensive and easy to prepare. If you don't have a blender you can also use an immersion blender.

I'm not giving you exact measurements for these recipes, but rather ratios that will work for many kinds of vegetables like carrots, broccoli with stems, frozen peas, corn, cauliflower, potato, asparagus, etc. For every 1 lb of vegetables use 1/2 onion - this amount is usually enough for 2 generous servings.

Ingredients:	serves 2
2 T	olive oil
1/2 pc	yellow onion, small dice
1 lb	vegetables, cut into small pieces
to cover	cold water
to taste	kosher salt,
to taste	black pepper
to taste	lemon juice
to taste	heavy cream, optional
Tools:
1 pc	(heavy-bottom) sauce pan
1 pc	blender or immersion blender

Pea Soup w/Smoked Ham

Technique:
In a heavy bottom sauce pan heat about 2T olive oil, add the onions, sprinkle with a little salt and sweat the onions for a few minutes until they turn transparent - do not let them brown!

Add the vegetables and add as much cold water as it takes to barely cover them. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until they vegetables are tender - do not overcook them!

Let the vegetables cool off before adding them to the blender. Blend/puree to the desired consistency. If the consistency is too thick simply add a little bit of water. I like pureed vegetable soups really silky so I make sure the blend them well. Also, if you are using corn or asparagus you want to be sure to get all the little 'woody' pieces well incorporated.

Pour the pureed soup back in the sauce pan, gently heat and season to taste with kosher salt, black pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice to bring out the flavor.

You can also add a little heavy cream to the soup to give it more of a 'cream soup' feel if you will.

Enjoy!