Local fitness enthusiast Jason Murphy remakes favorite meals of his youth into healthy dishes. See the full list of his recipes at www.mysaline.com/shirtless.
We are finally getting some cool temps this weekend, and I can’t wait. 90 degree days in October are ridiculous. At this rate, we’ll be carving watermelons for Halloween and the only candy that will survive trick or treating will be M&M’s. As soon as I feel a hint of cool air in the breeze, I’m breaking out the dutch oven pot and making homemade soups.
Sadly, back in my previous life, homemade soup was a mystery to me. I thought they only came in a can, or worse, in a pouch to be brought back to life like a pack of sea monkeys from a comic book ad. That’s a tragedy, because not only is the taste of homemade soups far superior to any store bought version, but the nutrition possibilities are endless when you control the ingredients.
And if you aren’t already aware of canned and powdered soup mixes, here there be dragons… made of outrageously high sodium, too many preservatives to count, and extremely questionable little pieces of what they say is chicken, but have yet to prove it. Canned soup, even the kind labeled as “healthy” just isn’t, and should be avoided at all costs unless you find yourself under a zombie apocalypse where the food supply chain has collapsed.
Potato Soup is a fantastic comfort food on a cool day, but as we all have learned, anything a potato can do, cauliflower can do better. I would bet anyone that wasn’t told this was cauliflower would never pick up on the change. It is that good.
I always make a giant pot of this, thinking it will last throughout the week, and I always end up scraping an empty pot for a tiny last taste like the old Miracle Whip commercials the very next day. It’s a super simple and easy recipe, it comes together quickly, and you can’t go wrong. Of course, it’s only as healthy as the ingredients you use, and this could go from healthy to a gut bomb in a hurry if you use the normal ingredients.
Choose wisely and load up on this loaded cauliflower soup without worry. I like to add my low carb cornbread to go with it. The link to the article for it is below. I hope you enjoy.
Loaded Cauliflower Soup
Ingredients:
1 large head of organic cauliflower or 2 medium
1 lb ground turkey
3 cups low sodium chicken bone broth
1 cup grass fed half and half
4 oz grass fed cream cheese
1 cup shredded grass fed white cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp onion and garlic powder
3 cloves garlic minced
1 yellow onion diced
1 package organic baby bella mushrooms rough chopped
Green onions thin sliced
3-4 slices crumbled cooked bacon
1/2 cup grass fed plain yogurt or sour cream
Instructions:
Wash and rough chop the cauliflower, add to a large stock pot or dutch oven, and bring to a boil.
Brown the turkey meat in a skillet with 1/2 tsp of salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder. Once the meat is no longer pink, add the mushrooms and yellow onion to cook down:
Drain the excess moisture from the meat mixture and cover to keep warm. Once the cauliflower is cooked and soft, add the cream cheese and hit it with a stick blender until the cauliflower is smooth and the cream cheese is melted:
Add the shredded cheese and sour cream/greek yogurt and stir until melted and smooth, then remove from heat and add the half and half:
Then add the cooked meat and stir to combine:
Garnish with some crumbled bacon and green onion if desired:
See the list of all the Shirtless Chef recipes at www.mysaline.com/shirtless.