Garden Vegetable Soup PREVIEW

The famous zero point Garden Vegetable Soup from Weight Watchers. Quick to make with minimal chopping. Uses inexpensive and easy-to-find fresh and frozen vegetables.

Saturdays: They're my favorite day to cook, especially in winter. Most Saturdays, you'll find soup simmering on my stove, either for supper or the week ahead. This Garden Vegetable Soup is famous in Weight Watchers circles. To my mind, it deserves fame in wider circles for it's easy, it's delicious, it's healthful. There's some chopping involved but in a rush, frozen vegetables are perfectly acceptable.

MANY VARIATIONS from Weight Watchers
Weight Watchers Mexican Zero Points Soup (it's got zing!)
Weight Watchers Asian Zero Points Soup (it feels light too!)
Weight Watchers Italian Zero Points Soup (it's milder!)
Weight Watchers Fresh Vegetable Soup (best made a day ahead!)

MY OWN VARIATIONS
Master Recipe for Homemade Vegetable Soup (coming January 1 from Kitchen Parade, my food column)
Low-Fat Vegetable Soup (a huge batch, from Kitchen Parade)
How to Convert One-Point Soup Recipes to Zero-Point Soup Recipes (an easy technique to convert your own recipes)

MORE WEIGHT WATCHERS RESOURCES
Vegetable Recipes for Weight Watchers (vegetable recipes, zero, one and two point recipes only)
Weight Watchers Points for Vegetables
How Many Carbs in Vegetables?
from A Veggie Venture

Kitchen Parade recipes (all courses, organized by points)
How to Lose Weight with Weight Watchers (tips from Alanna & readers)
Quick 'n' Easy Raw Salad ("healthy habits" tips from Alanna & readers)
Weight Watchers' PointsPlus Power Foods (the most healthful ingredients for Weight Watchers)
One-Point Fruit Servings for Weight Watchers (for those still following Old Points)
from Kitchen Parade

MORE WEIGHT WATCHERS-FRIENDLY RECIPES STRAIGHT TO YOUR IN BOX! If you're a Weight Watchers fan, you know how hard it is to cook AND count points. Now it's easy. Consider signing up for free e-mail notification whenever new recipes are published on A Veggie Venture (this food blog about vegetables) and Kitchen Parade, my food column. ALL NEW RECIPES INCLUDE WEIGHT WATCHER POINTS – Old Points and PointsPlus both! Sign up for new recipes from A Veggie Venture and new recipes from Kitchen Parade.

WEIGHT WATCHERS ZERO POINTS GARDEN VEGETABLE SOUP RECIPE

Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time to table: 1 1/4 hour
Makes 9 cups

6 cups broth

Cooking spray
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
4 teaspoons garlic, minced
1/2 cabbage, chopped
1/2 pound frozen green beans
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 large zucchini, diced

Bring the broth to a boil in the microwave. (This is a time-saving tip that can be skipped if there's no hurry.)

Spray a Dutch oven with cooking spray and heat on MEDIUM HIGH. Add the carrots, onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the zucchini and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the beans are tender. Add the zucchini and cook until the zucchini are tender. Serve and enjoy!

ALANNA'S TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES

BROTH Canned broth or bouillon granules work fine but for more freshness, consider using Homemade Vegetable Bouillon or Light Vegetable Stock.
GARLIC Use garlic from a jar or substitute about four cloves minced garlic.
CABBAGE Fresh cabbage is best but you can use a bag of pre-cut slaw, just look for the biggest chunks you can find versus the fine angel-hair slaw. Don't skip the cabbage, somehow it makes the soup.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE Per Cup: 61 Calories; 0 g Tot Fat; 0 g Sat Fat; 13 g Carb; 3 g Fiber; NetCarb10; 701 mg Sodium; 0 mg Cholesterol; 4 g Protein; Weight Watchers Old Points .5 & PointsPlus 1

HOW DOES A ZERO-POINT RECIPE HAVE POINTS? This soup is low-cal, low-carb, high-fiber and no-fat. But hmmm. What about the claim that it has no points in the Weight Watchers world? I suppose so, since all the ingredients are "free". But the way I calculate points, a calorie's a calorie and so I count every one of them whether from chocolate cake or fresh vegetables. In my book, Garden Vegetable Soup counts as 1 point but if you want to count it as Zero Points, go ahead. Either way, it's a winning recipe.

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MORE FAVORITE LOW-POINT WEIGHT WATCHERS RECIPES
~ Peasant Cabbage Tomato Soup ~
~ Buttermilk Garlic Salad Dressing ~
~ Smoked Scallops with Zucchini Ribbons ~
~ more Weight Watchers vegetable recipes ~
~ Alphabet of Vegetables ~
~ quick vegetable recipes ~

Eat more vegetables! A Veggie Venture is the home of Veggie Evangelist Alanna Kellogg and is the award-winning source of free vegetable recipes, quick, easy, and yes, delicious. Start with the Alphabet of Vegetables or dive into all the Weight Watchers vegetable recipes or all the low carb vegetable recipes. © Copyright 2006