Healthy Soup Recipes

Ingredients:

1 qt milk, whole, low-fat or skim
1 small onion, peeled and stuck with
2 cloves
6 whole peppercorns (or more)
1 pinch salt

BOUQUET GARNI

1 :tie in cheesecloth,
6 fresh parsley stems,
1/2 tsp dried leaf thyme
1/2 bay leaf

SOUP, CON'T

4 tbsp rice flour (or barley or oat flour, )
4 tbsp cold milk (about)
8 oz shiitake mushrooms

OPTIONAL

6 tbsp heavy cream
2 tbsp madeira
1 reserved mushroom slices

Instructions:

This rich, earthy soup has but 100 calories per serving if made with
non-fat milk.

PLACE THE MILK, ONION, peppercorns, salt and bouquet garni in a saucepan
and bring slowly to a boil. Form a smooth paste of the rice flour and the
cold milk. Put into the just-boiling milk and stir briskly until there are
no lumps. Simmer over very low heat for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cut off the
tough ends of the mushroom stems. Reserve a few mushroom slices for garnish
and chop the remaining mushrooms coarsely, then place in a food processor
with a steel blade and chop as finely as possible. Strain the milk mixture
through a fine sieve back into the saucepan; add the chopped mushrooms and
continue simmering 5 minutes. Add the cream and Madeira, if you wish, and
serve in hot bowls, garnished with a slice of mushroom.

Servings: 4