Smooth, creamy, and comforting delicious soup! This one is a THM E soup which means it is low in fat and has some good healthy carbs in there but it tastes anything but low fat.

I was looking through the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook looking for something new to add to my menu one week shortly after starting THM. We had the promise of a few cooler days, which to me means soup. This one sure didn’t let me down.

So here’s what I do:

I finely dice about 3 or 4 stalks of celery and a large onion. Then I put them in my dutch oven with a little water, about a tablespoon or two. You don’t want so much that the veggies are swimming in it but enough to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Periodically stir them and add more water as needed, until they have lost their crunch. They don’t have to be too well done because they are going to be cooking for over an hour so they will soften even more. You see, my family is picky about veggies, they should be melded into the flavor of the soup and not heard/crunched on. Yes, this increases the amount of time required to cook this recipe but it is worth it for us.

Now we need to get the cauliflower cooked. So, sometimes I remove the veggies and others I just add the broth and cauliflower. Once the cauliflower is fork tender, use a slotted spoon and remove it from the pot to the blender, along with two cups of the broth. If some of the onions and celery makes the trip with the cauliflower or broth, no big deal.

Now add carrots. I like to slice them on my mandolin. Again, we don’t like crunchy veggies so having these sliced thinner is better for us.

Add the wild rice as well.

Also add in the salt

freshly ground pepper

and herbs. We do not care for thyme so I use oregano.

Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

Add three ounces of Neufchatel cheese (1/3 less fat cream cheese) to the cauliflower in the blender and blend until smooth. Then add it to the simmered soup.

Stir it in well; then add pre-cooked chicken. I like to use chicken I cooked in the crockpot earlier in the week but you could always just take a large breast and saute it in a pan while the soup was simmering.

Stir it all together and let it heat up and meld the flavors at a simmer for about 15 minutes. You want the rice to break apart but it is ready as soon as it is hot.

Yummy and creamy and oh so good!!!

So there you have it, a delicious bowlful of creaminess. In order to respect the copyright of the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook and the creator of this yumminess, Rohnda, I will refer you to page 100 of the cookbook or direct you to Rohnda’s website or to her new website here, where you will find her original recipe. I used the version from the cookbook.

Here are the tweaks I made:

• less celery
• substituted yummy oregano for the thyme
• sautèd the onions and celery to ensure they were not detectable in the final soup
• sliced the carrots on the mandolin so they too would be completely cooked
• I did not measure the chicken, veggies, or black pepper
• Oh! And I mistakenly used rice blend instead of just wild rice.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we have. Oh! It can be served with a slice of sprouted grain bread (warm from the oven is delightful) and still be an E.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº