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Holiday Detox Vegetable Soup

holiday-detox-soup

Not-So-New New Year’s Resolutions
Why does it take a new year to begin resolutions? Does January 1st magically signal our psyche to begin anew? Or is it the debauchery and sugar overindulgence of the holidays that forces this reckoning? Knowing that we can’t keep downing the cocktails and champagne, eating the ham and turkey plus leftovers, and lifting yet one more cookie off the holiday tray puts us in a somber, get-it-together mood once the clock strikes midnight and the New Year begins. OK. Maybe we wait until noon on New Year’s Day to strike this peace accord with ourselves and willingly surrender our excesses.
For me, the reckoning began later. I arrived home on January 6 from a two-week family vacation in Argentina. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, at Posada Puerto Bemberg near Iguazu Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil, came and went with nary a thought to resolutions. I was having too much fun and it wasn’t going to stop until I arrived home. I didn’t dare step on the bathroom scale until the 9th of January, giving myself plenty of time to lose any water weight I may have retained from the flight home.
The truth hurts, though it could have been worse. An addition of a few pounds on my frame means my clothes are tight and my jeans barely zip. I was sure all that sweating in the northern Argentina jungles was worth a pound or two. Looks like not. I think those thick and juicy Argentinean steaks, along with bottles of Malbec (notice the plural), would require days of jungle trekking, and that we did not do.
So … out comes the big soup pot. This is my diet plan. Using only a couple tablespoons of olive oil, just enough to slick the bottom of the pot, I sweat garlic, leeks, carrots and celery. To that I add low-sodium, fat-free chicken broth along with a large can of peeled, diced tomatoes, including the juice from the can. With the liquid at a simmer, I add one-inch chunks of butternut squash, zucchini, red bell pepper, and green beans. When those are fork tender, I toss in a can of drained and rinsed cannellini beans and a small handful of fresh herbs. After ten minutes of simmering I have a pot full of hearty, nutritious, low-calorie goodness that fills and warms me up, satisfies my taste buds, and keeps me going. It would probably be delightful with a glass of Malbec, but that would require another resolution, and my psyche just isn’t ready for that.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large cloves garlic minced
2 leeks white and light green part only, cut into thin slices
2 large carrots peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
3 ribs celery trimmed, halved lengthwise, and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
6 cups homemade chicken stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) tomatoes in juice peeled, diced
1 1/2 cups butternut squash peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 can (15 ounces) cannellini beans drained and rinsed
1/2 cup small dried macaroni such as elbows or shells
2 small zucchini trimmed and cut into l/2-inch dice
1 red bell pepper seeded, deribbed, and cut into l/2-inch dice
1 package (9 ounces) frozen Italian green beans thawed (see Cook’s Note)
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley minced
3 tablespoons basil pesto homemade or store-bought, at room temperature
Kosher or sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, preferably Parmigiano-Reggiano freshly grated

Instructions:

In a 6-quart stockpot, heat the oil and garlic over medium heat, and allow the garlic to simmer in the oil until fragrant but not brown, about 1 minute. Add the leeks, carrots, and celery and cook, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until crisp-tender but not brown, a bout 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock and the tomatoes and their juice, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the butternut squash, cannellini beans, and macaroni and continue to cook, partially covered, for 10 minutes longer. Add the zucchini, bell pepper, and green beans and continue to cook until the squash is fork-tender and the macaroni is al dente, about 10 minutes longer. (The soup can be made up to this point, cooled, covered, and refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen up to 2 weeks.)
Remove from the heat and add the parsley and pesto, stirring to distribute well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot and pass the Parmesan cheese at the table.

Cooks Notes

If you can’t find frozen Italian green beans, also known as romano beans, which are wider and flatter than regular green beans, use frozen cut-up green beans instead. Do not, however, use French-cut green beans, because they will cook away. You can, of course, use fresh green beans if they are reasonably priced and tender, though winter isn’t generally the best time of the year to buy them.