Healthy Cooking Live with Steve

 As I write this we’re in a mid-January thaw, fingers crossed that it lasts, but don’t count on it so lets soup up to keep warm!  We’ll be doing five soups.  If you haven’t had a chance to see the split pea soup yet this will be one of the last times this season that you can see it done live...don’t miss it.  Besides that we’ll be doing a soup modified from a rutabaga soup Patrick O'Connell (Inn at Little Washington) recipe and a black-eyed pea and collard green soup modified from a Lorna Sass (The Complete Vegetarian Kitchen) recipe.  Chili has been one of my specialties over the years and since my lifestyle modification experience I’ve developed several different versions.  This is the American style chili; thick and hearty! As always the recipes are all meat-free, oil-free, dairy-free, and low in sodium!

For the health conscious eater, especially those going through a lifestyle modification involving weight reduction, soup can be a way to introduce creativity and variety as well as satisfaction.  A small, but well structured study attested to the high degree of satisfaction derived from soups leading subjects to actually consume almost 30% less calories when presented soup as opposed to the same food items in a different form.[1], [2], [3]  Soup is almost an essential dietary component of any lifestyle modification protocol!  These data were confirmed and their implications expanded in a larger 2007 study that found “pre-loading” or consuming soup in a variety of forms before a meal reduced overall calorie intake for both men and women 18-45.[4]

Soups are also where aspiring cooks first learn to think about how ingredients interact and become more than the sum of their parts.  Learning how to create an environment where that happens is essential if you want to become a good cook.  With some luck we’ll be identifying that very moment 5 times and you can watch it happen right in front of you!

On the Menu:

• Hamless Split Pea
• Spicy Black Eyed Pea and Collard Green Soup
• Red Lentil Soup with Cauliflower and Lemon
• Thick & Hearty Bean Chili
• Velvety Rutabaga with Maple Apple

Topics For Discussion:

• Chronic disease: the modern dietary dilemma
• How to cook tasty food with less salt, fat, & sugar
• Kitchen organization for healthy cooking; the basics
• Using a pressure cooker; the basics
• What food to keep on hand
• What equipment to have in your kitchen
  

[1] Bell EA, Rolls BJ.  Effect of water content of food on satiety.  FASEB Journal.  1999;13:A870.

[2] Rolls BJ, Bell EA, Thorwart ML.  Water incorporated into a food but not served with a food decreases energy intake in lean women. 

  Am. J. Clin. Nutr.  1999;70:448–455.

[3] Mattes R.  Soup and Satiety.  Physiol Behav.  2005;83(5):739-47.

[4] Flood JE, Roll BJ. Soup preloads in a variety of forms reduce meal energy intake.  Appetite.  2007;49:626–634.