Claire’s Test Kitchen: Filling Creamy Tomato Soup

I found this recipe in Prevention magazine and since I absolutely love creamy tomato soup – especially with grilled cheese sandwiches – I had to give it a try. It’s super low in points and very filling because instead of heavy cream you use white beans to thicken the soup. Interesting concept. You get thickness, plus the added fiber brings the points value down and fills you up.

And I would have taken a picture but my camera is out of batteries, so I promise, next time.

Ingredients

• 2 14.5 oz cans stewed tomatoes (or chopped)
• 28 oz fat free, sodium free chicken broth (I just used the empty tomato cans to measure
• 1 14.5 oz can cannellini beans or white northern beans
• 1 cup fat free milk (or 2% milk, but changes the points value
• Several bay leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

These are not the exact directions from the magazine, but my adaptations and how I cooked the soup. Heat up the tomatoes along with the bay leaves in a medium pan over medium heat. Let it cook for about 15 minutes, allowing the bay leaves to flavor the tomatoes, and the tomatoes to cook down. Rinse and drain the cannellini or white northern beans, mash them, and then set them aside. Add one cup fat free milk to the tomatoes and simmer another 15 minutes. Stir frequently. Remove the bay leaves and stir in the mashed beans. Remove the soup from the stove and put it in the blender and puree until smooth.

Using the quantities above, I had to split the soup into two batches and I pureed it twice by putting the once-pureed mixture into a bowl, pureeing the next batch, stirring it all back together, and pureeing again. This is because the beans settle at the bottom of the soup when first added.

Claire’s Review

Very filling soup. You can definitely taste the bean texture in the soup, but it’s a healthy alternative. Next time, I’d add some basil for more flavor, I think. The bay leaves didn’t seem to do too much. Also, this yielded nearly 8 cups, and the original recipe said it served 4. So, when I ran it through the Weight Watchers online recipe builder, that calculated to 3 points for a 2 cup serving. That’s a whole lotta soup. You could reduce the serving size and consequently lower the points, if you wanted. I’ll freeze the leftovers and will have a nice hearty soup to have in a pinch.

Tagged as: Claire's Test Kitchen, cooking, filling foods, Prevention magazine recipes, Recipes, tomato soup, Weight Loss, Weight Watchers, Weight Watchers Points