Friday 17 January 2014

Foodie Friday - Healthy Chilli, Butternut Squash And Sweet Potato Soup

If you follow me on Instagram (click here if you don't x ) you'll know that I lost 4lbs this week. I'm really chuffed that my first week back in weight loss mode has lead to such a positive result and it makes me even more determined to carry on.

The only trouble with trying to lose weight at this time of year is that believe it or not, it's cold outside! It's been freezing this week in the UK and to be honest the last thing you want to eat when it's cold is a healthy and cold! salad, so I've been looking towards other healthy options. As you may have already gathered from this blog I'm a huge soup fan but I'm partial to a bit of cream, cheese, butter and olive oil so they aren't always as healthy as they could be. Everything in moderation though, life shouldn't be about denial but if your trying to be good like me here is a lovely warming and low fat soup recipe.


Healthy Chilli, Butternut Squash And Sweet Potato Soup

1 Litre Vegetable Stock
2 Cloves Garlic 
1 Butternut Squash
400g Sweet Potato
1 Large Onion
2 Fresh / Dried Red Chilli's
Salt And Pepper To Taste

1.Make up 1 litre of vegetable stock - I used 2 Knorr stock pots x Add it to a large pan and then add about another 2 litres of boiling water depending on the size of your pan. Then add a couple of roughly chopped cloves over garlic to the pan


2. Roughly chop your chilli's, mine are dried red Thai chilli's. I like it spicy so I leave the seeds in. You could also use chilli flakes, pickled jalapenos, or chilli paste and use as little or as much as you like.


Add your chilli to your pan.


3.Then peel, de-seed, and roughly chop your butternut squash and add it to the pan. The flesh of mine weighed about 800g just for reference.


4. Then peel and roughly chop your sweet potatoes, I used 4 small ones here x and add them to the pan


5.Then peel and roughly chop an onion and add that to the pan x


6. Then bring the heat up to a simmer and cook for at least 30-45 minutes or so until the vegetables have softened.


7. Then blend till smooth, I'm using my trusty blender here x


8. Then return it to the pan to reheat, and season with salt and pepper to taste x - Just look at that colour  all natural too!


9. Voila, warming, tasty soup that tastes even more indulgent than it is x


This really easy recipe makes at least 4 large bowlfuls, and it keeps well for a couple of days in the fridge. I haven't tried freezing it but I imagine that would be okay too. Each bowlful roughly works out at 200 calories with around 1.9g of fat. It's really, really filling and you don't miss any of the usual fatty ingredients. The sweet potato gives it a really thick and almost creamy texture, and the chilli gives is a lovely kick at the end.

Like most of my recipes the ingredients can be interchanged as to what you have, what you like and how much you want to make. You could also add different types of root veg, or peppers to make it even more substantial. You could also vary the seasoning, I love chilli, but if you don't add less or if you like it super spicy add more, and you could also replace the chilli with nutmeg or cinnamon -spices that work really well with both sweet potatoes and squash. Oh and just a quick time time saver for you - I'm a firm believer in the Thinking Slimmer theory that every movement is exercise so I have no problem in hacking up a butternut squash and peeling a few potatoes, but if you don't have the time or the energy you can buy ready peeled and chopped packets of both butternut squash and sweet potato in most major supermarkets.

I hope you like my recipe and if you have any healthy winter, vegetarians, recipes I'd love to hear them xx 

2 comments:

  1. Well done on losing another 4lbs, that's great news! This recipe looks yummy, love the sound of the spicy kick at the end.
    Laura x | My Life in a Blog

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well done on loosing 4lbs that's fantastic :) This sounds delicious! x

    Jordan-Alice

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