One thing that I’ve found that makes life in the kitchen easier in addition to cooking as much as possible ahead of time is to pick a “theme”. This allows you to use what you already have on hand which saves time, but it also saves you from ending up with a bunch of odds and ends that rot and get tossed out. Last week for What I Eat Wednesday, the theme turned into a Mexican sort of combination.
There were lots of roasted peppers, black beans, corn, cilantro. I started out with eggs with chopped peppers. The peppers were already cut up so I roasted a few with corn on the cob. For lunch, I moved to a taco salad with black beans, peppers, cilantro. Dinner rounded things out with roasted red pepper soup. I used the rest of the corn, peppers, and remaining black beans so that everything was cleaned out and nothing went to waste.
Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Corn and Black Beans 
- 2 medium sweet red peppers (400g)
- 1 cup (100g) yellow onion, sliced or diced
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 15 oz can low sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup (140g) corn
- 16 oz cooked pork tenderloin, cubed
- 1 cup (140g) radishes, sliced
- Chopped cilantro, for garnish
Preheat your broiler and line a cookie sheet with foil. Remove the seeds from the peppers and slice the peppers into big slices that lay flat on the cookie sheet. Broil under the broiler until they start to char and blacken. Remove from broiler and sit them aside.
Heat a pot over medium heat and spray with non-stick spray. Add the onions and garlic, and saute for 3 – 5 minutes until the onion softens. Add the chicken broth, red peppers, and cumin. Bring to a boil and simmer covered for about 15 minutes until the peppers and onions are mushy. Use a hand blender, magic bullet or food processor to puree the soup.
Stir in the black beans and corn. Divide soup into bowls and top with the cubed pork and radishes. Garnish with cilantro if desired.
Makes 4 servings at approximately 297 calories – 31g protein, 32g carbs, and 5g fat.
The soup is great served either hot like soup usually is or cold like a red pepper gazpacho. Cold soup that is veggie based is wonderful for those hot summer evenings. I love this one with the crunchy chilled radishes on top. You can also garnish it with other things like sour cream, greek yogurt, avocado slices, jalapenos.
I had the leftovers for the next couple days, and just tossed a bunch of spinach in a bowl and poured the cold soup over top. You could even put it in a mason jar or plastic container and take it with you to work. Easy! Do you ever have a theme for your meals for the day? What are some of your favorites?
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