Diet soup

Me? Diet? Naaaah! No way! Nada. Period

Was what I used to think till even a couple of years ago – I pooh-poohed all diets,  maintaining with great pride L that I needed my three square meals a day! Yes, till last year when my weighing scale kept insisting on telling me the truth about the needle pointing ever northward!

Lots of research about diets, I decided to improvise my own – based on the two days a week semi fast. It was difficult to feel full on the supposed 500 calories a day so obviously MUCH improvising happened! Here is the result of one such. I make a large 1.5 litre pot of soup with many goodies in it and eat that through the day whenever I’m hungry – which is still most of the time. Interspersed with glasses of buttermilk (which, btw is counted a zero-cal food- yay!!), it keeps me happy J

Here’s the soup:

• Ooty double beans – 1.5 cups – I use the fresh ones when available or rehydrate the dried one when not.
• ½ cup chopped shallots
• 1 large carrot – cut into cubes
• 1 knolkhol – cubed
• Green beans – de-string and snap into two – 1 cup
• Tomatoes – chopped – 2
• Capsicum and zucchini – ½ cup each - cubed
• 1 pod garlic - optional - chopped
• Oil – 1 tsp
• Rosemary, sage and oregano – 1 large pinch each
• Fresh mint leaves – 2 tbsp
• Salt and pepper

Saute the shallots and garlic  in a pressure cooker in the oil till golden brown. Add the beans and cook for 2-3 whistles. Switch off, let the pressure release, add the rest of the ingredients except the capsicum and zucchini. Simmer till vegetables are still a bit crunchy. Add the capsicum and zucchini and continue to cook till just done – about 3 minutes more. Switch off, garnish with mint and eat for the rest of the day.

End of day, get on the scales and if you haven’t lost weight, you’ve been eating chocolate cake!!!Cheater!