I had this soup for the first time when I was up in New Jersey visiting family. I bought it from this little Italian deli near there house & immediately fell in love with it. I decided to make my own, low-calorie, low-sodium, vegetarian version (using vegetable broth instead of chicken stock & omitting the pancheta, sausage or ham-hock that you sometimes find in them).
I calculated the calories for this recipe, so I will post the specific item I used for each ingredient (not to implicate that you should buy exactly what I bought, but just so you can see where the calories came from & where I was able to cut out sodium).
Keep in mind, that if you are not concerned or interested in low-sodium, feel free to get the regular versions of these canned ingredients, or just add salt to taste at the end.
Yeilds: 9 (1 cup) servings
Ingredients:
4 cups vegetable broth (Pacific Natural Foods: Organic Low-Sodium Vegetable Stock)
1 pound escarole
2 (15oz) cans of cannellini beans (Eden Organic: No Salt Added Cannellini Beans)
1 (15oz) can of diced tomatoes (Del Monete: No Salt Added Diced Tomatoes)
1 small/medium onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
pepper (and salt optional) to taste
Cooking Spray (or olive oil)
Directions:
1. Dice and saute garlic & onion in pot over medium-low heat, you only want to sweat out the onions, you do not want to put any color on them. (I used cooking spray to cut the calories as much as possible, however, you can use 1 tblespoon of olive oil).
2. While garlic and onions being to sweat, chop the escarole. Once the onions becomes semi-translucent (about 3-5 minutes) add in the can of diced tomatoes and cook a few minutes longer.
3. Add in the 2 cans of cannellini beans, 4 cups of vegetable stock and escarole.
4. Turn the heat up to medium-high and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally until the escarole is completely wilted into the soup.
5. Cook for about 10 minutes past this point, for the soup to thicken.
6. Add pepper (and salt) to taste!
7. SERVE & ENJOY - with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, or a wedge of crusty Italian bread.
Nutritional Information:
1 CUP SERVING
106 Calories
6g Protein
1g Fat
493mg Potassium
7g Fiber
122mg Sodium!
