Chipotle and Red Hubbard Squash Soup

I picked up a beauty of a 2-pound red Hubbard squash in November, and it has been hanging around my kitchen ever since. Obviously, it's a good keeper, but Autumn is long gone, and I've been thinking about a smoky soup flavored with chipotles, those smoke-dried jalapeños I like to pick up at The Spice Corner in Philadelphia's Italian Market.

Red Hubbard Squash, center row

Hubbard squash has a tough shell of a skin, so I baked the squash at 350F for about an hour while I helped out with a science fair project. At that point, it was easy to cut the squash open (watch out for the escaping steam), scoop out the seeds and strings, and peel the skin. Maybe, if I had let it go longer, I could have scraped the flesh out of the skin.

I discovered that the red Hubbard squash has a very orange firm, mild-flavored flesh, not very pumpkiny at all, drier than most winter squashes, with a flavor something like roasted chestnuts, though not as sweet. Perfect for those family members who are not big winter-squash fans. That 2-pound Hubbard gave me about 4 cups of cubed squash, weighing 1 1/2 pounds. I modified a recipe for the Ritz-Carlton's Chipotle Carrot soup (from the Philadelphia Inquirer's former Sunday Magazine). I added white beans and a little bit of cumin.

The chipotles in their soaking water smelled like Lapsang Souchong in the kitchen. The squash and cumin added a warm note. The soup was delicious with a sides of cooked kale and vinegared red cabbage slaw. But I learned a lesson -- three chipotles is just a bit too much for the young children in the house. I served them emergency rations of cheese on bread, and ate their leftover soup myself. So the official version of this recipe now calls for only one chipotle. If I want more heat, there is always Bufalo.

Chipotle Squash Soup

This rich, smoky soup is made from mild-flavored Hubbard Squash, and is delicious served with cooked greens.

Recipe By: Family Nutritionist

-= Ingredients =-
1 whole Dried chipotle ; (3 if you can take the heat)
2 teaspoons Olive oil
1 medium Onion ; diced
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 1/2 pound red Hubbard squash, cubed
4 cups low-sodium Chicken broth ; warmed
15 1/2 fluid oz Canned White beans
pepper ; to taste

-= Instructions =-
Break stem(s) from pepper(s) and remove seeds. Soak dried peppers in enough warm water to cover.

For 1 1/2 pounds squash (about 4 pounds cubed), start with a 2-pound Hubbard squash. Bake squash in 350 degree oven for at least one hour, or until skin is tender . Halve squash, scrape out seeds, and peel with a paring knife or scrape flesh from skin.

Heat oil over medium heat and add onion, stirring frequently until caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add squash and peppers and their liquid. Add broth, bring to boil and reduce to simmer, covered for 30 minutes or until squash and onions are tender.

Drain beans. Add 1/3 to 1/2 to soup. Puree soup in until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Add remaining beans. Serve hot with cooked greens.

Quick-cooking variation:
Substitute 1 1/2 pounds of canned pumpkin or winter squash for the 1 1/2 pounds of Hubbard squash. Cook soup for 10 minutes before pureeing.

Nutritional Summary
Each (1 cup; 240g) serving contains:
Cals: 107, FatCals: 15, TotFat: 1g
SatFat: 0g, PolyFat: 0g, MonoFat: 1g
Chol: 0mg, Na: 207mg, K: 451mg
TotCarbs: 18g, Fiber: 4g, Sugars: 1g
NetCarbs: 14g, Protein: 7g

Food Group Serving(s)
DASH: Vegetables: 1.1: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 0.1: Seeds: 0.1: Fats: 0.1: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 0.6: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 0.5: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0

Nutritional information in this post calculated using bigoven. Food Group Servings calculated in EXCEL using http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and DASH diet references

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Healthier choices: Veggies need salsa

Kids like to dip. And I don't like bottled ranch dressing. I hate to see them slurp it up as though it were a side dish. It makes me feel like a bad parent.

So I decided on a dip that, when I see them slurping it up, I can simply ask them to pretend to be civilized and use a spoon. Salsa. It's tomatoes and vegetables. Commercial salsas are often full of salt, but salsa is quick and easy to make. Use fresh or canned (no-salt added) tomatoes, any peppers (sweet to hot) you like, onions for flavor, a little lime (or lemon) juice, and cilantro, if you like it. Stir it up for a chunky salsa, or process in the blender for a smooth one. This will keep for a few days to a week in the refrigerator. Broccoli will do a really good job soaking up the tomato juice. Kids will probably prefer the onions chopped fine.

Salsa

Make this low-salt salsa from fresh tomatoes in season or canned tomatoes in the winter.

Recipe By: Family Nutritionist

-= Ingredients =-
15 ounces Tomatoes ; unsalted, petite diced
1/2 cup Onions ; chopped fine
1/4 cup Cilantro ; chopped
1 cup Peppers ; small dice
1 tablespoon Lime Juice ; or to taste

-= Instructions =-
If the tomatoes are too juicy, drain some of the juice.
Mix ingredients together in a bowl. For a smoother salsa, blend in a food processor.
Refrigerate for an hour. Add salt if you need it.
Serve with baked corn tortillas or vegetables

Nutritional Summary
Each (1/2 cup; 96g) serving contains:
Cals: 24, FatCals: 2, TotFat: 0g
SatFat: 0g, PolyFat: 0g, MonoFat: 0g
Chol: 0mg, Na: 7mg, K: 196mg
TotCarbs: 5g, Fiber: 1g, Sugars: 1g
NetCarbs: 4g, Protein: 1g

Food Group Serving(s)
DASH: Vegetables: 1.1: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 0.5: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0

Nutritional information in this posting calculated using bigoven. Food Group Servings calculated in EXCEL using http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and DASH diet references

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Food and Mood -- a followup

So we tried the experiment two days in a row. Replace part of the morning serving of grain with an egg. Won't that stick with her longer? No, she says. She enjoyed having an egg for breakfast, but was famished by midmorning, whether or not she had her egg with a teaspoon of orange marmalade. She offered the rest of her hardboiled eggs to the rest of the family, and is now again happily eating a cereal-and-milk breakfast every morning.

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Atkins adherents eat more vegetables?

Robert Atkins did not base his diet on science. He read a bit, lost some weight, recommended it to his patients, and built an empire on books and supplements. But, twenty five years later, the science started to get done when a medical professor at Duke wrote Atkins asking him for data to back up his claims. Atkins began funding Westman and Yancy to do some studies. The results in these 4- to 6-month studies were encouraging. Participants lost weight. Triglycerides went down. HDL went up. Diabetics' blood sugar improved. When interviewed in 2004, one of the researchers had something interesting to say:

"We had people in our studies tell us that they are eating more vegetables on the Atkins diet," says Yancy. "It's because people have concentrated so much on starches and carbohydrates. When those are taken out of the picture, they have only meat, eggs, and vegetables as an option, and so they end up eating more vegetables."[1]

Eating more of the green, leafy, low-calorie vegetables seems to be one thing all the diets agree on.

1. _The skinny on the Low-Carb Craze Kim McDonald, Duke Magazine 2004 September;90(5)

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Food and Mood

What happens when a 9-year old eats a bowl of cereal, runs around for 2 hours in the snow, and then tries to tackle a science fair project? Sudden negativity. Ready to quit the science fair. Convinced that her hypothesis is stupid. Resistant to looking at the graphs we have just made in EXCEL. Refusing to paste the data into her science fair notebook. Contrary and combative. Angry and nearly in tears.

We slogged on like this for an hour before I said to myself "Blood sugar," and declared it to be lunch time. "It is not lunch time, and I am not hungry," she said, so I boiled her an egg, which, predictably, she complained about. But she ate it, with a little orange marmalade, and was soon all smiles and ready to finish her lunch. Afterwards, she had a good attitude, was able to draw some conclusions about the data, and made much better progress on her project.

No surprise, really. Food for thought, though. We've been in the habit of starting the day with grains. Cold cereal or oatmeal with 8 ounces of milk and perhaps a fruit or 6 ounces of orange juice. But, after running around for two hours in the cold, my daughter had run out of energy.

So this morning, I decided to change the balance a little. Add a boiled egg, reduce the oats a little, don't forget the fruit, lose some sugar. First thing in the morning, though, it seems a child's blood sugar is low. No honey? No marmalade? Contrary, combative, angry, and nearly in tears. Eventually, she ate the experimental breakfast, and had the energy to run errands all the way until lunch time, without even stopping for a snack, though she did say she was hungry. Not the same as running around for two hours in the snow and then tackling a science project, but worth thinking about, all the same. Tonight, She boiled 4 eggs, and intends to have one in the morning. With a little orange marmalade.

Of course, I never get grumpy when my blood sugar runs low. Never.

Oatmeal Breakfast	Oatmeal and Egg Breakfast
1/2 cup Quick oats, prepared with water 1/4 cup raisins 1 cup skim milk	1/4 cup Quick oats, prepared with water 1/4 cup Raisins 1 cup Skim milk 1 hard-boiled egg
Each 435g serving contains: Cals: 329, FatCals: 22, TotFat: 2g SatFat: 1g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 2g Chol: 5mg, Na: 156mg, K: 856mg TotCarbs: 65g, Fiber: 5g, Sugars: 25g NetCarbs: 60g, Protein: 15g	Each 426g serving contains: Cals: 302, FatCals: 18, TotFat: 2g SatFat: 1g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 2g Chol: 5mg, Na: 154mg, K: 828mg TotCarbs: 60g, Fiber: 4g, Sugars: 25g NetCarbs: 56g, Protein: 14g
Food Group Serving(s) DASH: Vegetables: 0.0: Fruits/Juices: 1.0: Dairy: 1.0: Grains: 1.0: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0 USDA: Vegetables: 0.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.5: Dairy: 1.0: Grains: 1.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0	Food Group Serving(s) DASH: Vegetables: 0.0: Fruits/Juices: 1.0: Dairy: 1.0: Grains: 0.8: Meat/Fish: 0.3: Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0 USDA: Vegetables: 0.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.5: Dairy: 1.0: Grains: 0.8: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 1.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0

Nutritional information in this posting calculated using bigoven. Food Group Servings calculated in EXCEL using http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and DASH diet references.

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Lentil Soup with Saffron Yogurt

I have a dollar bag of saffron that I picked up on a whim at The Spice Corner in Philadelphia's Italian Market. I tried a pinch in some recipe or another, but really couldn't taste the saffron. So I was intrigued by Heidi Swanson's Lively Up Yourself Lentil Soup recipe. It seems so plain, so unseasoned, except for a dollop of saffron-infused yogurt. I usually season lentil soup with hambone, celery, carrot, caraway, and cloves.


She suggests 6 to 8 servings from this soup. Six servings gives 288 calories (30 from fat) and 25g net carbs. You also get a total of 1 cup vegetable (onions, greens, and tomatoes) and 21g of protein, which is what you'd get in about 3.3 oz (uncooked weight) lean meat. Add a slice of whole grain bread to round things out and a couple more servings of vegetables, and it's a full meal. And it will fill you up. Depending on how much liquid you cook off, the serving size will be about 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 cups.

If you split the pot 10 ways, you'll get 173 calories (18 from fat), 15g net carbs, and 13g of protein, equivalent to about 2 oz (uncooked weight) lean meat, and about .6 cup of vegetables, from approximately 1 cup of soup, which is still nearly a main-dish sized portion.

Here's my version of Heidi Swanson's lentil soup, using diced tomatoes instead of crushed (which, in the US, is a puree).

Recipe By: http://HeidiSwanson.com
Serving Size: 12
Cuisine: American
Main Ingredient: Beans
Categories: Vegetarian, Meatless, Soup

-= Ingredients =-
2 cups Lentils ; (Black Beluga or green French), picked over and rinsed
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion ; chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
28 ounces Low-salt diced tomatoes
2 cup water
3 cups Chard ; or other leafy green (kale,etc.) rinsed well, deveined, finely chopped
~~ Saffron Yogurt ~~
1 pinch Saffron ; 30-40 threads
1 tablespoon water ; boiling
1/8 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Plain low-fat yogurt ; Greek, if possible

-= Instructions =-
Add the lentils to 6 cups of boiling water. Simmer for 20 minutes. Drain.
Combine saffron with 1 tablespoon boiling water, soak for a few minutes, add a pinch of salt, and stir into the yogurt.
In a heavy soup pot, then saute onion in oil with salt until tender. Stir in lentils, tomatoes, and 2 cups water and heat to a simmer. Add the chopped greens and cook briefly.

Serve with saffron yogurt.

Heidi Swanson suggests: garnishing with crunchy fried shallots, pan-fried butternut squash, a poached egg or cooked whole grains; substituing chive-infused cream for the saffron yogurt; adding seasonings such as smoked paprika, toasted cumin, or crushed dried chilis to the soup.

Based on a recipe by Heidi Swanson at http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/lively-up-yourself-lentil-soup-recipe.html

Nutritional Summary
Each (1 1/2 cups; 347g) serving contains:
Cals: 288, FatCals: 30, TotFat: 3g
SatFat: 1g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 2g
Chol: 1mg, Na: 125mg, K: 1040mg
TotCarbs: 47g, Fiber: 22g, Sugars: 10g
NetCarbs: 25g, Protein: 21g

Food Group Serving(s)
DASH: Vegetables: 2.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.1: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 1.7: Fats: 0.5: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 1.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.1: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 3.3: Fats: 0.5: Sweets: 0.0


Nutritional Summary
Each (1 cup; 208g) serving contains:
Cals: 173, FatCals: 18, TotFat: 2g
SatFat: 0g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 2g
Chol: 1mg, Na: 193mg, K: 624mg
TotCarbs: 28g, Fiber: 13g, Sugars: 6g
NetCarbs: 15g, Protein: 13g

Food Group Serving(s)
DASH: Vegetables: 1.2: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.1: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 1.0: Fats: 0.3: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 0.6: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.1: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 1.0: Fats: 0.3: Sweets: 0.0

---

Nutritional information in this posting calculated using bigoven. Food Group Servings calculated in EXCEL using http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and DASH diet references.

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Healthier Choices: Adapting for diabetics

What do you do when people you care about develop high blood sugar or diabetes? Invite them over for a meal of macaroni cheese, pierogies, and lima beans? Give them a gift basket full of your famous home-baked Christmas cookies and your home town's best artisan chocolates? Yes, I did serve them that high-carb meal, followed by cake and ice cream. It was my child's birthday dinner. I still feel guilty about it. At Christmas, though, I skipped the cookies and made them a nice basket of their favorite cheeses.

What should I serve the next time they are over? Surely, most of the things I've been eating for the last couple of years are pretty good. The DASH diet is pretty well balanced, not too high in blood-sugar boosting refined sugars and carbohydrates, right?

I asked some questions at the Diabetes discussion group at bigoven.com. What do you know? The very first recipe I posted here, a delicious, hearty, one-pot, balanced, healthy meal is not really so well balanced for diabetics. I was told the recipe was high in "net carbs" (total carbohydrates - fiber), because it has so many potatoes, and the serving size really represents an awful lot of food for one meal.

So I used an EXCEL spreadsheet to help me figure how many servings of what food groups I would get by fiddling with ingredients and quantities, and used to figure the nutritional information. I used the EXCEL spreadsheet to help me replace half of the potatoes with rutabaga, and then reduce the number of vegetable servings from 4 to 3 while leaving the meat unchanged. This took a little bit of fiddling and weighing of rutabagas. I used BigOven's nutritional links to help me get to and save information about how many cups of diced rutabaga I can get from half a large rutabaga.

After I was done fiddling with the quantities in the recipe, I updated my recipe in Bigoven to reflect the decisions I had made. Then I used Bigoven's nutritional calculator to tell me how I had done. Success! The original recipe had 367 calories in an enormous, 2-cup serving, and included 55g of carbs with 9g of fiber for a 46g of net carbs. The revised recipe has has 257 calories in a 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cup serving, features 3 half-cup servings of vegetables, 33g of carbs and 7g of fiber for 26g of net carbs. The group told me I was now on the right track.

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Blackened Beef with Greens, Red Potatoes, and Rutabaga

Here's the diabetic-friendly version of the Blackened Beef recipe I have been working on. If you use , you can download it.


-= Exported from BigOven =-

Blackened Beef with Greens, Red Potatoes, and Rutabaga

Recipe By: Family Nutritionist
Serving Size: 6
Cuisine: American
Main Ingredient: Beef
Categories: Diabetic, Low Fat, Saute, OnePot Meal, LOW SODIUM, DASH, Main Dish

-= Ingredients =-
1 pound lean top round of beef
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
2 medium red potatoes ; cut into quarters about 1 inch thick (about 2 cups)
1/2 medium Rutabaga
2 cups Onions ; finely chopped
1 1/2 cups low fat low salt beef broth
1 1/2 cups water
2 cloves garlic ; minced
2 large carrots ; cut into rounds about 1/4 inch thick (1 cup)
3 cups kale ; stems removed, coarsely torn into pieces

-= Instructions =-
Briefly put the beef in the freezer to freeze partially in preparation for slicing thinly.
Mix the paprika, oregano, chili powder, garlic powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and dry mustard in a small container with a lid and set aside.
Thinly slice the beef across the grain into strips 1/8 inch thick. Sprinkle the strips liberally with the seasoning mix. (Save any leftover seasoning mix to use for other dishes.) Spray the bottom of a large skillet or stockpot with cooking spray and preheat over high heat. Add the meat and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.
Add the potatoes, onions, broth, water, and garlic to the skillet. The blackened spices will float to the top of the liquid as it heats. Cover and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Stir in the carrots and lay the kale on top. Cook, covered, until the carrots are tender, about 10 more minutes. Serve from the skillet or transfer to a large serving bowl. Serve with crusty bread for dunking.

Nutritional Summary
Each (1 1/2 cups; 441g) serving contains:
Cals: 258, FatCals: 55, TotFat: 5g
SatFat: 2g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 2g
Chol: 45mg, Na: 205mg, K: 1228mg
TotCarbs: 30g, Fiber: 6g, Sugars: 8g
NetCarbs: 24g, Protein: 22g

Food Group Serving(s)
DASH: Vegetables: 2.9: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 0.9: Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 1.4: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 2.7: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0

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I corrected this posting to reflect corrections I made to the recipe after making it this evening (17 Jan 2007)

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Healthier Choices, step 3: take a little walk

What does walking have to do with nutrition? Food contains energy. If you decide to lose weight, you could have a tough time taking in all the nutrients you need while restricting the calories. Exercise burns some of those calories, allowing you to lose weight while still getting enough to eat.

Even 5 minutes a day is better than no exercise at all!

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Whole foods -- not a brand name

Highly processed commodity foods and ingredients have been in the news, starting with all the bad news about Chinese food ingredients. At the same time, there is a debate going on about the advisability of concocting "functional" foods out of isolates, extracts, phytochemicals, and derivatives of foods. Many of these highly-processed foods are labelled "healthy" and even "organic".

At one time, eating organically was supposed to be the antidote to some bad food choices. Fresher, more nutritious, less tainted, grown in a way that is less depleting to farmland. Sounds good, right? But what's the point of eating "organic" versions of popular highly-processed foods?Is an organic Twinkie really what we are aiming for? If you can mix up some organic vegetable protein isolates with some natural flavoring extracts and beet juice concentrate for color, would the resulting organic meal replacement bar really be a good replacement for a meal?

What's wrong with red beans (30 minutes in the pressure cooker), brown rice (30 minutes on the stovetop), a side of carrots (20 minutes), or broccoli (10 minutes) and quick green salad with tomatoes, and maybe a nice little piece of blackened fish? For dessert, how about a nice piece of fruit or even an apple crisp (30 minutes in the oven). Now THAT sounds like a meal. It's the kind of food that, studies show, helps us stay healthy.

It is hard to substitute toxic chemical scrap for any of these foods -- you recognize these foods when you handle them. And you recognize them when you eat them. You don't need to add coloring or flavoring extracts (organic or pseudo-organic). You can cook it in quantity and freeze portions for your later convenience. You'll have something that tastes good, something you can take pride in preparing and enjoy sharing with other people.

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Healthier Choices, step 2: eat lunch

Here's a classic busy-day-at-work story. Skip Lunch. Low energy in the afternoon. Famished by dinner time. No time to make lunch in the morning? Start taking mini carrots and string cheese to work. Ten mini carrots and one string cheese is a half-cup of vegetables and a serving of dairy. It's easy to choose your portion size.
It's only a snack, hardly a whole meal, but it is a step in the right direction.

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