Cold Weather Comfort: Vegetarian Lasagna Soup

Lasagna in a bowl and a cheese crisp

I've went off my whole foods diet a little with Halloween. I ate more than my fair share of candy and cupcakes.  However, I'm sworn off unhealthy foods until Thanksgiving.  I think I should eat whatever I want to on the day of a holiday, so all bets are off on Thanksgiving day.  I'll write more about that later.  Now that the weather is getting cooler and fresh, local produce is harder to find I think it's soup season.

I saw a recipe for a soup that was supposed to taste like lasagna in a bowl.  Yum!  However, the soup was made for meat eaters (it was mostly meat, pasta and tomatoes).  I modified it and made it vegetarian and cut back a bit on the pasta.

I think modifying recipes is one of the things you need to learn to do when you're trying to eat healthier.  You can't be afraid to experiment in the kitchen, and soup is an easy thing to experiment with.  A lot of people still act shocked when I tell them I didn't use a recipe or that I modified a recipe.  A friend said, "You might as well just throw some crap in a bowl if you're not going to go by the recipe exactly."  Well, I agree with her.  You might as well throw some crap in a bowl.  What's the worst thing that is going to happen? You'll waste a few ingredients? The best thing?  You might end up with an awesome dish.

My problem is that since starting this blog, I've had to write down what I do.  Which is good, I guess. It means if I make something good I can repeat it.   For this soup, I just made a soup of what I normally put in my lasagna.

Instead of the goupy cheese the original recipe had on top, I made a crispy cheese "cracker."  I like a crunch in my soup.  I love goldfish crackers in soup, but they don't fit a healthy diet.  When I was a junk food vegetarian, I lived on goldfish.  I always had a bag around.  Straight Parmesan cheese "crackers" satisfy that goldfish craving nicely.  It's not the wheat I loved, but the crunchy, cheesy, saltiness.

My onions are big because I pick them out, but I like the flavor. I'm weird.

The first time I made this soup, I made it without the pasta.  I found adding just a little bit of pasta gave it more body (it mostly disintegrated and just made the broth more substantial). You could leave the pasta out entirely if you wanted to be gluten free, and it would still taste good.  I cooked my soup in a crockpot.  I love crockpots for soups.  The pasta would hold up better in a regular pot.


Vegetarian Lasagna Soup

2 tsp olive oil
3 cup chopped onions
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 chopped bell pepper
1 cup of chopped broccoli florets
1 28-oz. can diced tomatoes (try to find one without sugar added, they do exist)
2 bay leaves
6 cups vegetable stock
1/2 c. finely chopped fresh basil leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 handful of crushed lasagna noodles
2 cups of spinach

1.  Add everything except the noodles and the spinach to your pot or crockpot.  It's that easy to make soup. Really.
2. In a crockpot, cook on low for 3-4 hours.  In a regular pot, you probably only need to cook it for an hour or so.
3. Throw the noodles and spinach into the pot in the last 30 minutes for the crockpot or the last 15 minutes in a regular pot.  
4. Remove the bay leaves before serving.
5. Top with a cheese cracker (below).  You can also toss in a tablespoon full of cottage cheese before serving if you want even more cheese.  Ricotta will work too, but cottage cheese is a little healthier and much better at satiating you.  For the amount here, it won't matter much. 

Cheese "Crackers"
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

Flat mounds

1. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
2. Mound the cheese in 4 separate areas. Flatten the tops so the piles look even.
3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, until starting to brown.  
4. Because of the mozzarella, these won't get "hard" like crackers, but I like them for soup.  If you want a harder cracker, straight Parmesan will crisp up. (just use a whole cup of Parmesan). 

This is how brown they should be.

It really does hit the lasagna spot, and look how healthy it is.  As with everything, these nutrtional values depend on the products you use.  I read the labels on a bunch of broth and canned tomatoes when I was at the store last.  The carb and calorie content varies widely between them.  Some of the canned tomato brands are loaded with corn syrup or other sugars.  I used my own stock (vegetable stock is easy to make), but canned tomatoes are one thing I buy.  There's no sense in making your own if tomatoes aren't in season, and not all canned tomatoes are loaded with junk.  You just really need to read the labels.

Nutrition Facts for Vegetarian Lasagna Soup

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Amount Per Serving (serves 6)

Calories:  192

Total fat: 10.7 g

Protein: 9.3 g

Total carbohydrate:  17.5 g

• Dietary Fiber: 3.3 g
• Sugar: 3.9 g

Nutrition Facts for Cheese Crackers

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Amount Per Serving (serves 4)

Calories:  105

Total fat: 8 g

Protein: 8 g

Total carbohydrate:  1 g