Low Fat Seafood Chowder

Chowder for me is more than just a soup, its a meal in a bowl. Chowder is something I'll always order when dining close to the coast as I always find that pubs and restaurants close to the coast always make the very best chowder. Sometimes chowder can have alot of cream in it, making it a not so low fat option. I've devised this low fat version to satisfy my craving for my beloved chowder without going OTT on the calorie count.

Ingredients

• 1 fillet of smoked haddock, cubed
• 1 fillet of cod, cubed
• 1 fillet of salmon, cubed
• 1 cup of mussel meat
• 1 cup of king prawns
• 1 leek, chopped
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 garlic clove, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 4-5 baby potatoes, sliced
• 2 tbsp flat leaf parsley
• 200ml of fish stock, mixed with a tsp of saffron strands
• 300ml of low fat milk
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• Low Fat Creme fraiche to serve

Method

1. In a saucepan, add the oil, and sweat the onions, leeks, garlic, carrots, and baby potatoes. Saute for 5-8 minutes.
2. Add the stock and milk, and bring to the boil.
3. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Using a hand held blender, whizz the soup mixture to a smooth consistency.
5. Add the seafood mix and continue the simmer until the fish is cooked. (Normally 5 minutes)
6. Season well and add some creme fraiche and flat leaf parsley.

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

What nicer way to recover from getting soaked in the pouring rain outside than a lovely bowl of chicken soup.

In my opinion, chicken soup cures everything….. a flu,… a broken heart, ….a hangover, and its especially good in warming you up after a miserable day out there.

I decided to make a Thai Chicken Vegetable Noodle Soup with leftover uncooked chicken thighs in the fridge. It’s relatively simple to make, just need a few fresh vegetables, some limes, and some Asian store cupboard staples like coconut milk (light- of course), fish sauce and lime leaves.

This soup is would be a great starter for an Asian inspired dinner party, but also equally fantastic as a one pot supper.

For me it’s a case of throwing on the jam-jams and chunky socks, put on a roaring fire, and slurp (the only way to eat noodle soup) the soup propped in front of the fire whilst watching something soppy like ‘The Notebook’!!!!!

Serves 4

Ingredients

·         4 chicken thighs (skinned)

·         500ml of chicken stock

·         1 can of light coconut milk

·         1 red chilli, deseeded and diced

·         1 lemongrass stalk, bruised and chopped

·         1 thumb size ginger piece, peeled and diced

·         2 garlic cloves, minced

·         2 kaffir lime leaves (dried is fine)

·         2 tsp of fish sauce

·         3 crushed peppercorns

·         Juice of a lime

·         5-6 mangtout, sliced

·         1 carrot, sliced with vegetable peeler

·         5-6 mushrooms sliced

·         4-5 baby corns, sliced
·         4 spring onions, chopped

·         100g of straight to wok thin rice noodles

·         4 tbsp of chopped coriander

·         Extra fish sauce and limes to add as per individual tastes

Method

1.       Add chopped garlic, ginger, chili, lemongrass to a pan with a little oil and sauté for a min.

2.       Add the chicken thighs (skinned) and brown.

3.       Add the lime leaves and crushed peppercorns, stock and coconut milk.

4.       Bring to the boil, and then reduce to a simmer.

5.       Simmer for 10 minutes.

6.       Remove the chicken and slice off the bone, then return the slices to the pan. (discard the bones)

7.       Add the mushrooms, carrots, corn and mangtout and cook for 2-3 minutes.

8.       Add the fish sauce and lime juice, spring onions and the noodles;  stir to combine.

9.       Cook for a further minute.

10.   Scatter with coriander and its ready for serving.

Serve with extra fish sauce and lime juice if preferred and slurp away till your heart’s content!!!!

Tip: Make this vegetarian by using vegetable stock and tofu!!! I’ve heard vegetarian fish sauce does exist, but very difficult to locate, when in doubt substitute for soy sauce.

Low Fat tip: Leave out the coconut milk and chicken and add prawns instead.

Low Fat Thai Squash & Sweet Potato Soup

Making this soup, is one of the nicest things to cook to awaken the senses. The smell of the Thai flavours mingling together in the pot, brings me straight back to the streets of Bangkok. I only wish that I could share smells with you as well as visual and written parts of this blog as the recipe is a truly fantastic example of how smells of food evoke such wonderful feeling of wellness.The sweetness of the squash and sweet potato contrast so well with the smell of shallots, ginger, lemongrass and lime leaves. It all just works!!!
I went for a Thai massage yesterday with my sister in law in Killarney (me???, spoilt??, yea!) and for 1-2 hours was transported to Thailand. The incense and the ginger tea, the welcoming gentleness of the Thai therapists, just made me want to cook something to bring us back to those five weeks we backpacked around Thailand years ago.

This soup, although has some coconut milk, it is reduced fat milk and I only use 200mls. Simply just to give the hint of coconut. The rest of the ingredients for the soup are very healthy, in fact the natural medicinal healing properties of all the ingredients on their own, make this an incredible wellness soup, especially if you have been suffering from a recent flu or cold. According to your own liking, you may wish for a heat that's more intense, if so add a full red chilli. Be warned though, the heat intensifies over night, so if you are planning to have this soup over a few days, it very well might blow your head off on day three. Another addition to this soup, perhaps for a dinner party, might be to add some raw prawns and gently heat in the soup until cooked.


Serves 6-8 bowls of soup. Can be kept for up to 3 days refrigerated.

Ingredients

• 1/2 a butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 1 regular sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 garlic clove, diced
• 1/2 red chilli, deseeded and diced
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and diced
• 4 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 lemongrass stick
• 2 shallots
• 700ml of chicken stock
• 200ml of reduced fat coconut milk
• 2 tsp of fish sauce
• Juice from one lime
• 4 tbsp of fresh coriander
• 1 tbsp of vegetable oil.

Method

1. Fry the shallot, ginger, chilli, garlic in the pan with the oil.
2. Add the squash, potato, lime leaves, lemon grass and stir for a few minutes.
3. Add the chicken stock and fish sauce and bring to the boil.
4. Simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Blitz the soup smooth with a hand held blender
6. Add the coconut milk.
7. Stir through with the fresh coriander and lime juice.

Low Fat Beetroot Soup

I’ve only embraced the beetroot in the past year or so, and now I simply cannot get enough of it. It’s a shame really as it was everywhere when I was in Russia, with Borscht (Russian soup with Beets) featuring on every single menu we encountered. I’ve decided to do my own twist on Borscht, without the fat.

This is a really vibrant pink soup. It’s just so so pretty that it looks like a soup that Elle woods in Legally Blonde would be proud of. My pink soup packs a punch though with some red chilli adding a fiery punch. The great thing about this soup is that it’s completely fat free and the only remote bit of fat with it is if you were to add crème fraiche, yogurt or a soft cheese to the centre for serving. I’ve compromised a little and added a teaspoon of low fat natural yogurt, to give the fiery soup a great refreshing tangy flavour. Also right at the end, might I suggest a squeeze of lemon juice to give the soup an instant burst of freshness.

This is a real time saver soup, using a food processor to do all the chopping and using pre-cooked beetroot. If you make a large batch freeze in individual containers once completely cooled.

Serves 6

Ingredients

Basic Soup Base

·         1 cooking onion

·         1 clove of garlic

·         1 leek
·         1 carrot

·         700 mls of vegetable stock

·         Salt & pepper

·         4 precooked beetroots, finely chopped

·         ½ red chilli, deseeded and chopped

·         6 tsp of low fat yogurt (one tsp per bowl)

·         6 sprigs of flat leaf parsley.

·         Low fat cooking spray

Method

1.       Roughly chop the onion, garlic, leek, carrot, and chilli.Then add to a food processor and pulse a few times.

2.       Spray a saucepan on medium heat with low fat cooking spray.

3.       Sauté the pulsed vegetables for 5 minutes until soft.

4.       Add the beetroot and vegetable stock. Bring to boil and then down to a simmer for 10 minutes.

5.       Season well and blitz with a hand held blender. If it’s too thick add more boiling water and stir through.

6.       To serve place in soup bowls and pour over some yogurt and garnish with flat leaf parsley.

Soup Tip

When making soup, I nearly always use the same soup base.

Basic Soup Base

·         1 cooking onion

·         1 clove of garlic

·         1 leek
·         1 carrot

·         700 mls of vegetable stock

·         Salt & pepper

Different ingredients can be added to make all types of soups using this soup base. Whizz the ingredients , sauté in a pan and then add you preferred vegetable (e.g. carrots, parsnips, broccoli, tomatoes, potatoes – to name a few soups) and finally add stock and boil, simmer and whizz. I’m always trying new soups, but usually stick to this base recipe.

Low Fat Mushroom & Thyme Soup

Mushroom & thyme soup was our soup of choice on our wedding menu as it truly is one of my favourite soups. However I normally reserve it for a treat, as when you think of mushroom soup you can’t help but think of all the cream used in the cooking of it that makes it so delicious and creamy. So for that reason I rarely order it as its sure to be laden with cream and butter.

Sure enough when I researched classic mushroom soup recipes, they nearly all started with sautéing mushrooms in butter and flour, followed by lashings of cream, and some even double cream!!!!

I thought to myself, I like this soup way too much to give it up, so I set about creating my own low fat version of it. And so here it is. Bye bye butter!! Bye bye cream!!!.

 I’ve found that the trick to a good and tasty mushroom soup, is the quality of the mushrooms and the variety used. Chestnut mushrooms and portabello work really well, and give a great nutty flavour. The only thing you really have to worry about in this recipe is the potato and thats not even all that bad.

What’s great about this recipe is that you are in control. You decide or whether to add milk, or cream, or neither!!

Serves 4

Ingredients

·         200g of white mushrooms, sliced

·         160g of chopped all sorted mushrooms

·         1 garlic clove, grated

·         2 tbsp of thyme

·         2 shallots, roughly sliced

·         1 rooster potato, peeled and cubed

·         1 leek, finely sliced

·         700ml vegetable stock

·         100ml skimmed milk

·         Salt and pepper

·         Low cal oil spray

Method

1.       In saucepan, spray some low cal oil and sauté the shallots, leek and garlic for 5 minutes.

2.       Add the mushrooms and potatoes and thyme and continue to sauté.

3.       Add the stock and bring to boil, then simmer for 10 minutes, or until potato is soft.

4.       Pour in the milk and whizz with a hand blender.

5.       Add salt and pepper and give it a good final stir.