Souped up Soups

Chef Wendell: Souped Up Soups 'live' Video

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/category.asp?C=77447&nav=menu35_4

Here are a few ways to 'kick up' your favorite canned or boxed soups:

Thicken watery soups with pumpkin puree (unsweetened); Great heart food
Add a pureed sweet potato to vegetable soup for added antioxidant protection
Add fiber and protein with Vegetarian Refried pinto or black beans.
Add flax seeds or bran to pump up colon cleansing fiber.
Add sauteed' soy burger crumbles to add texture and protein.
Frozen bagged vegetables can be added to any sort of soup. Peas are my favorite.
Sauteed spinach / greens provide vitamin K and calcium for bone health.
Take last night's skinless chicken and add it.
Add a dollop of low-fat plain yogurt moments before serving.
Garnish with chopped parsley, basil, oregano, or thyme. All herbs have medicinal virtues.
Add whole grains to tomato soup; brown rice, quinoa, barley.
Buckwheat soba noodles add fiber and energy. Who doesn't like noodles?

Canned Soups - A Nutritional Conundrum

Is it healthy to eat soup in the can? Actually, the kitchen table is more civilized.

Canned soups can taste rather boring, don't you agree? Actually, they all often taste the same. This is a trade off for convenience. Historically canned foods were a Godsend to many war torn countries and busy American families on the fly. Once food is cooked, however, it gradually begins to lose its nutritional equity and becomes empty calories. If you recall, most of the vegetables are cooked to nutritional oblivion. Call a paramedic, please. For decades we've added cans of soup to casseroles and entrees.

Eat Right, Now! suggests that you add exciting new ingredients to your cans of store bought soup. Learn how to rev up soups with more fresh ingredients. For decades, we've depended upon canned foods when we are in a hurry. Many mainstream soups and baby foods on the grocer's shelves also contain harmful amounts of salt, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, and other ghastly preservatives that deteriorate our good health. Read the labels and avoid soups with high sodium content. Also, many soups are prepared with the insidious High Fructose Corn Syrup. Don't let any advertising tell you otherwise. HFCS is unnatural to our physiology and raises triglycerides, and causes obesity. Check it out. (http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/highfructose)

According to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 17% of the typical American diet consists of canned foods. Does canned soup offer any nutritional benefits? Does the can lining leach into the soup if it has been on the shelf for a while? If so, does the canned soup lining leach any controversial chemical BPA into the soup? After food sits in a tin can for a period of time, it loses its nutritional oomph and absorbs the leaching BPA from the lining.

(www.naturalnews.com/021761.html)

Pacific Foods Brand Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato is exceptional. I even like to spike it with sherry and low-fat sour cream occasionally. Probiotic yogurt does the same with less fat.Select canned foods from makers who don't use BPA, such as Eden Foods (http://www.edenfoods.com/), Muir Glen Brand which both sell certified organic canned beans and other foods. (http://www.muirglen.com/) Pacific Foods Brand.

Peace,

Chef Wendell

www.wendellfowler.com