Stirring the Pot by Jenny McCarthy Read Free Book Online Page A

eat/wear them often but not so much that they become uninteresting. Then there are the more exotic vegetables—kohlrabi, bok choy, or mustard greens—that are kind of like the Swarovski-bedazzled bras and thongs only available at the Victoria’s Secret runway show. Pull those out on rare, rare occasions and wow someone with your ability to rock his world!
    The most nutritious, generally low-calorie, and easiest way to make any vegetable into a meal? Put it into a pot with some broth and a protein and
ba-bam—
soup. Another earth-shattering revelation for me!
    I know what you’re thinking: soup is a watery appetizer, the skippable section of restaurant menus. Until I began experimenting with soup, I would have agreed with you. But now soup works for me on so many levels. There’s the one-pot thing, for starters. You can make vats of it and not dirty a lot of pots and pans. Almost all soups freeze well—perfect for people like me who only want to devote one afternoon to stocking up on what I’ll eat for the whole week. And there’s the fact that my energy level is way up and my weight has stayed down while I’ve been eating as much soup as I could ever want. Oh, and eat soup regularly and you’ll be regular: my bowels are in the best shape of my life.
    I know this is getting a little carried away with the metaphor, but the humble soup is a lot like life. Good soups use simple, basic ingredients, are easy to modify with whatever you happen to have in your own personal pantry, most often get better with age (more flavor with each passing day), and can not only feed large gatherings of people but also nourish the soul. I have stacks of one-serving containers of my homemade frozen soups in my cold, cold Chicago garage. People beg me for my recipes! Maybe I’ll have to write that book next.… For now, here are two of my favorite veggie soup recipes.
    CARROT GINGER

    Ingredients:
    ½-inch finger of ginger, peeled and sliced paper thin
    ⅓ cup hot water
    1 medium onion, chopped
    1 garlic clove
    ½ tablespoon olive oil
    ¼ pound carrots, peeled and diced
    4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
    1 teaspoon salt
    ¼ teaspoon black pepper
    Directions:
    Steep ginger in the hot water for approximately 30 minutes, then strain out the ginger pieces and reserve the water.
    Sweat the garlic and onion in the oil until translucent.
    Add carrots and sweat for another five minutes, stirring occasionally.
    Add the stock to the pot, bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer until the carrots are fork tender.
    Add the ginger water to the pot.
    Puree the soup and season to taste with salt and pepper.
    NO-CREAM OF BROCCOLI

    Ingredients:
    2 tablespoons Not-Butter Earth Balance Spread
    1 onion, roughly chopped
    2 garlic cloves, minced
    ½ tablespoon olive oil
    4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
    1 head broccoli with most of the stems trimmed off
    1 russet potato, peeled and roughly chopped
    1 teaspoon salt
    ¼ teaspoon black pepper
    Directions:
    Lightly sauté the onions and garlic in the oil until translucent.
    Add the broccoli florets and the potato, sauté for about 5 minutes.
    Add the stock and continue to simmer until the broccoli and potatoes are tender.
    Puree the soup and season to taste with salt and pepper.

How to Get Souper Skinny
    If I ever write a book about staying thin, getting in shape, or being in the “optimal wellness zone” (does anyone really know what those books are about?), I would call it
The Souper Skinny Soup Diet Cookbook
. All of my recipes would be gluten- and dairy-free. That is, mostly fart-free. Here are some I might include:
It’s All Nasty
    A playful twist on Gwyneth’s preciously packaged, über-healthy, gold-plated cooking style. (Chef’s tip: stock up on air freshener for the bathroom before making this deliciously perfect pipe cleaner!)
Rehab with Lindsay Lohan
    A colon-cleansing concoction that draws heavily on detoxifying herbs and veggies to clean out the garbage truck your body has become.
Here