Tomato Fennel Soup: Refueling after a long vacation

What a great vacation! It was so good spending time with family and having a break from work. But, after 3,000 miles driven, 16 days passed, lots of family seen, presents given and opened, and sugar (Gram's cookies!) eaten, it is safe to say that Tim and I are ready to get back into our routine following the holidays. As hard as we try to stick to our normal diet, we inevitably end vacation with digestion issues and feeling less than 100%.

After getting home from Florida yesterday, we have spent most of the day grocery shopping and cooking for the week ahead. I like to make hard boiled eggs, granola bars (post with recipe coming soon), and chop up snack vegetables like carrots, celery and cucumber for the week ahead. I also made a batch of Edamame Hummus (recipe from food network - thanks, Taryn!) to eat with the vegetables.

Here's what else is cooking...

TOMATO FENNEL SOUP

This is an incredibly simple recipe I adapted from eatbetteramerica.com that can be made ahead of time and frozen. Delicious both cold in the summer and hot in the fall/winter, Tomato Fennel Soup is incredibly versatile. During the summer I use fresh tomatoes and in the fall/winter, canned. Tonight we served this with roasted broccoli florets and homemade wheat bread for an easy filling meal.

Ingredients:
1 generous tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 lg. or 2 med. yellow onions, diced
4-8 whole cloves garlic, smashed
1 lg. fennel bulb, diced
28 oz. tomatoes, diced (if using canned, do not drain)
3-5 c. your favorite broth
kosher salt to taste
freshly cracked black pepper to taste

How to prepare:
Heat the olive oil over medium in your favorite soup pot (thanks, Gram for my new cast iron!). Toss in the onions and garlic allowing them to soften.

Add in the fennel, tomatoes, and about 3 c. of your broth. Stir, cover and reduce heat. Allow soup to simmer for about 20 minutes or until the fennel is tender. 

Remove from heat and puree the soup in a food processor until it reaches your desired texture. I prefer mine to be a little bit chunky so this is a relatively quick step. You can also feel free to add the additional broth here, again, depending upon your preferred texture. If you don't have a food processor you can use a blender, but be sure to let the soup cool completely otherwise the steam will pop off your lid (learned from experience!).

Once pureed, return the soup to your pot and season to taste with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. You may need more or less salt depending upon the broth used. I like my soup to have some zip so I add about 3 tbsp of cracked black pepper. You could also add red pepper flakes. Serve hot or chill and serve cold. Delicious and super healthy!

Hey, where's the protein?!

Common perception is that since meat isn't present in this meal there is no protein. Wrong! The fennel, tomatoes and onion in this soup all contain vegetable protein. While vegetable protein does not provide all essential amino acids, we will compensate by eating protein in other meals throughout the day. We've also paired our soup with whole wheat bread and broccoli florets which contain about 3 grams and 2 grams of protein per serving, respectively. To up the protein without adding meat to this particular meal, I might skip the puree step and add a can of beans such as garbanzo or white northern. Still healthy, still delicious!