After what feels like eons of eating nothing but festive cookies and cakes, vats of cream laden vegetables, and a kaleidoscope of well marbled holiday roasts, this week I officially cried UNCLE.
I’ve never been one who went in for New Year’s resolutions, preferring instead to make minor (or major) course adjustments in my life when I feel they’re needed, and have never been comfortable waiting until January 1st of any given year to set them in motion. That said, I’m not looking at my recent dietary makeover as part of a resolution, but rather a bold exclamation point to what has been an unusually rich holiday eating season.
Not sure whether it’s my age, or that this year’s culinary indulgences ran somewhat richer than average, but all I can say is it’s time to stop the fat and sugar train so I can get off before I do permanent bodily damage.
What better dish to kick my dietary evils to the curb, and reinstate some sense of normalcy to my eating than this simple, yet satisfying soup from my friends at Cooking Light Magazine. This vegetarian soup is super healthy with cannellini beans and dark, leafy greens, and made substantial with the addition of a just poached egg which offers it’s liquid yolk to enrich the broth of the soup. Do yourself a favor and poach a couple extra eggs when you first make the soup and store them in a bowl of ice water in your fridge. That way when you warm up a bowl of this goodness for lunch the next day all you’ll have to do is plop one of the eggs in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes to warm through …. et voila!
Happy Healthy New Year to you all!
Cheers – Steve
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
- 1 teaspoon freshly minced rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 cups unsalted vegetable (or chicken) stock
- 2 cups water
- 8 ounces yukon gold potatoes, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 4 cups shredded swiss chard
- 1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 4 large eggs
Instructions
- Heat a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add oil; swirl to coat. Add onion; saute 6 minutes. Stir in rind, rosemary, salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; cook 1 minute. Stir in stock, 2 cups water, and potatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in chard and beans; simmer 10 minutes, stir in cherry tomatoes.
- Fill a skillet 2/3 full of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Add vinegar. Break each egg into a custard cup, and pour each gently into pan; cook 3 minutes or until desired doneness. Carefully remove eggs from pan using a slotted spoon. Ladle soup into each of 4 bowls; top with a poached egg.