Recipe of A Week: Danger's Holiday Red and Green Soup

The holiday season is here. Your deployment orders? Eat, drink, and be merry.

Although the holiday season is many things to many people, one aspect that nobody seems to be able to escape from is the barrage of food, snacks, nibbles, holiday drinks, tasty morsels, family favorites, and ceremonial feasts. Having personally emitted Uncle Danger's Magic Elixir and more than a few Czech Christmas cookies into my local holiday atmosphere, I can understand why so many people want to detox after the holidays.

Well, fortunately for you, Uncle Danger is here to help you with an amazing soup recipe that is quick, easy, and healthy. It warms your soul as a hot winter food, and has no guilt-worthy ingredients. And, since it's red and green, it fits right into the holiday theme! Start serving this towards the end of the holidays, and the transition to healthier eating in the new year will seem barely noticeable.

Ingredients: 

4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup milk or cream (optional)
1 large red bell pepper, stem/seeds removed and chopped into large chunks
1 large red onion peeled and chopped into large chunks
2 medium tomatoes, peeled
2 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
1 zucchini, chopped into large chunks
2 cups of fresh spinach leaves
fresh ginger, peeled
1 red chili pepper
1 bunch fresh cilantro/coriander
1 bunch fresh basil

How to prepare:

Place the chunks of bell pepper, onion, the garlic cloves in their skin, and the zucchini on baking paper on a cookie sheet, and place directly below the broiler in the oven. Broil until the skins of the bell peppers are turning black, and the skins seem like they will easily separate from the peppers. Set aside to cool slightly. 

Meanwhile, start heating the vegetable broth in a large soup pot.

In a food processor, add the tomatoes, fresh coriander and basil, fresh spinach, small red chili pepper, and grate in about 2-3 teaspoons of fresh ginger. Blend until fully pureed.

Peel the skins off of the red bell peppers and the garlic (the garlic should have become soft and deliciously roasted). Add them, along with the other roasted veggies, to the food processor, and blend in with your spinach/tomato mixture, until you have a fully blended veggie mixture.

Transfer the contents of the food processor to the heated vegetable broth, and stir together thoroughly.

At this point, you can add the milk or cream. I use about 1/2 cup of lowfat milk, just so that I have a slightly creamed soup (but not creamy). My personal preference is to just make it not watery, but you can add the milk or cream to make this a full-on cream soup if you'd like, and it will still be amazing. Or you can not add it at all, and keep it broth based. I also add a flour/milk paste which I pre-mixed in a small bowl, so as to thicken the soup.

When everything is fully mixed together, use a blending wand to further purify the soup into a uniform mixture.

Add salt and pepper to taste, and it's ready to serve. Garnish with a bit of olive oil, and some spinach or basil leaves.

This soup is amazing, a bit Thai in taste, and has nothing to gripe about on the health front. The perfect complement to your 'new self' for the new year. Although we will all probably abandon our healthy eating habits by the time February rollss around, this soup is worth keeping in the catalog, as it's destined to become a favorite.