Asian Inspired Vegetable Soup

I may have over indulged this Easter holiday. Perhaps just a little.

Maybe I shouldn't have eaten those last couple of chocolate cupcakes, or those cookies, or that last bag of M&Ms, or those Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (I'm pretty sure these are injected with something addictive to get you hooked), or those gravy covered turkey sandwiches, or .....well.....I think you see where I am going here.

I was not exactly watching my caloric intake too carefully.

*Sigh*

Why does it take so much hard work and struggle to take the weight off but only one over indulgent weekend to put it back on?

*Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*

Okay. I am done feeling sorry for myself (kind of). Back to healthier eating!!

I found this recipe in one of our mother's old cook books. It had been cut out of a magazine and was being used as a bookmark - to mark a chocolate cheesecake recipe, interestingly enough.

I changed it a bit to reduce the calories and add even more vegetables!

Asian Inspired Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

3 cups bok choy, chopped

2 cups cabbage, chopped

5 large button mushrooms, thinly sliced

2 cups green onions, chopped

8 oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained

1 red pepper, thinly sliced and then slices cut in half

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

6 cups chicken broth (I used low sodium)

1 Tbsp sweet chili sauce

1/4 cup cooking sherry

 3 Tbsp soy sauce (I used low sodium)

1 Tbsp Oh! So Garlic (Optional)

2 cups snow peas, tips cut off

1 cup fresh bean sprouts

2 cups shrimp (raw)

Directions

Place all veggies, except snow peas and bean sprouts, in a large pot. Add the broth and, if necessary, enough water to cover vegetables. Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. 

Add chili sauce, cooking sherry, soy sauce, and Oh! So Garlic(if using). Simmer for about 5 minutes.

Add the snow peas, bean sprouts, and shrimp. Cook another 5 minutes, until shrimp is pink and peas are crisp-tender.

It probably took me about 40 minutes to put this together. The prep work took me a bit longer as I doubled the recipe so had more veggies to chop.

By the way, doubling this makes A LOT of soup.

As with all soups, you can feel free to make substitutions and/or just omit the things you want to.

If you don't have cooking sherry - just leave it out.

Don't like shrimp? Use chicken.

Love fresh ginger? Add some in.

Personally, I don't like the ginger flavoring in any of my dishes....neither does Sue. (I KNOW, we agree on something, holy heck!)

Another bonus with this recipe - I calculated the calories (roughly) using Fitday and it works out to about 70 calories per cup. Nice!

A fast and easy, not to mention delicious, way to get those veggies in.

Yay veggies!