Last time I pureed the soup with my hand blender, some bits of the celery string were present. This always bothers me when I use celery in a pureed soup. So this time attempted to "de-string" the celery with a vegetable peeler to improve upon the texture. It seemed to work!
My preferred store bought vegetable stock is a brand called "Kitchen Basics"® .
Yummy Yammy Soup
1 large yam, peeled and cubed
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
3 stalks of celery, strings peeled away and chopped
1 large chopped onion (or 3 medium leeks, white part - thoroughly cleaned and sliced)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp. cooking oil
1 quart or litre of vegetable stock
2 tsp. dried thyme
Fresh pepper
Pinch of kosher salt - or to taste if you're not worried about too much salt
Chopped fresh dill for garnish
1. Soften the onion and celery in oil. Sprinkle with salt and fresh pepper. Add garlic, carrots, yam and continue to cook for 10 minutes.
2. Add thyme and vegetable stock. bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 25 - 30 minutes . Check carrot and yam for softness and cook a little longer if necessary.
3. Cool mixture for a little while, then puree with a hand blender.
4. Add chopped fresh dill and serve!
This recipe made about 7 cups of soup.
I swore I would never be one to puree soups because they seem not to be as filling as soups that have the chunks of vegetable intact, but I am finding that not to be the case! And the added bonus is being able to camouflage all sorts of vegetables from your refrigerator drawer in your soup for added nutritional punch!
Now that Weight Watchers® has moved to the Points Plus® Program, I have not determined the points value per cup - but I'm estimating that each cup contains at least half a cup of pureed sweet potato, which counts as 2 points. All the other ingredients are 0 points. The oil adds barely .5 of a point to each serving.
Paired with a nice salad and a roll, it makes a lovely Weight Watcher® friendly lunch.
