It’s Friday night – and your family is planning to spend the evening watching a great movie on television. But first you have to get dinner out of the way. Instead of a quick meal of Mac n Cheese, why not spend a few minutes more making a dinner that’s not only quick, easy, and inexpensive, but is also delicious AND nutritious!
My recommendation – Curried Split Pea Soup, with whole wheat toast and a green salad.
This vegetarian soup is a great way to sneak in several servings of nutritious vegetables without your children even noticing, because they’re all blended together. Combine those vegetables with some nutritious yellow split peas, which are high in protein, fiber, and folate, as well as several other vitamins and minerals, and you have a heart-healthy meal that will also lower your cholesterol levels and keep your blood-sugar levels stable.
And, my kids love it! Even my kids’ friends have eagerly asked for second helpings (one particularly enthusiastic boy had his mom ask me for the recipe).
In case you don’t have all of the ingredients, you can start with the split peas, curry, and canned tomatoes, and then add whatever else you have lying around. One time, I added a bunch of pumpkin left over from halloween and a freezer-burned pork tenderloin – it was fantastic.
Try it tonight!
Curried Split Pea Soup Recipe (serves 4 – very large servings!)
you’ll need:
a pressure cooker (or a lot more time)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp crushed garlic
3 tbsp curry powder, 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp cayenne, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp salt
1.5 cups yellow split peas (dried, and rinsed)
1 800ml (28 fl oz) can diced tomatoes
1/2 bunch broccoli
1/2 small head cauliflower
1 medium carrot
1 medium zucchini
6 cups water
Instructions:
heat oil in pressure cooker, add garlic and curry powder and fry til garlic is golden. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, and cook under pressure (on medium low heat) for 15 minutes. Blend (a handheld blender is useful here), and serve.
Nutritional breakdown [nutritiondata.com]
This food is low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Protein, Thiamin, Folate, Iron, Phosphorus, Potassium and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K and Manganese.
– glycemic load ~24 (very low – that’s good!)
– inflammation factor ~361 (high – that’s good too!)
– calories 389
– fat 6 grams (mostly mono- and poly-unsaturated fat)
– protein 25 grams
– dietary fiber 26 grams
– Vitamin A 83% DV
– Vitamin C 171% DV
– Vitamin K 127 % DV
– Thiamin 50% DV
– Riboflavin 25 % DV
– Vitamin B6 35% DV
– Folate 74% DV
– Iron 40% DV
– Magnesium 39% DV
– Phosphorus 42% DV
– Potassium 48% DV
– Copper 52% DV
– Manganese 90% DV
– Phytosterols ~108mg
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