5:2 Diet Recipe – Cream of Leek Soup #Vegetarian #Vegan

Low Calorie 5:2 Diet Winter Soup made with Cauliflower Cream and Almond Milk:

Do you use pinterest?  I pin all my recipes and follow some of my friends boards.  Jac, who blogs over at Tinned Tomatoes is vegetarian and has a vegan husband and she produces some of the most fantastic vegetarian food.  Not so long ago she pinned a recipe for Cauliflower Cream Sauce from Yum and More a blogger in the states and I was intrigued.  My particular interest was to see if I could make a rich and creamy soup of the sort that is so comforting in the winter.  But without the calories.  Or at least without most of the calories (incidentally that idea of ‘negative calories’ isn’t one you can use for the 5:2 diet – on a fast day every calorie counts!)

• 100ml Cream =345 calories
• 100g Potato = 77 calories
• 100g Cauliflower = 25 calories

You get the picture?

Anyway, there were other key ingredients other than leeks and chicken stock (I did use a home made stock this time).  Almond milk because it is lower in calories than even skimmed milk and a spoonful of lightest philadelphia cream cheese (which of course any vegan could leave out).  Of course if you don’t have almond milk you could use normal milk, or even soy milk if you prefer.

Creamy Leek Soup – 5:2 Diet Recipe

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Serves	3-4
Prep time	5 minutes
Cook time	30 minutes
Total time	35 minutes
Dietary	Vegan, Vegetarian
Meal type	Soup
Misc	Serve Hot

Ingredients

• 200g Cauliflower
• 30g Light Almond Milk
• 2-3 shots 1-cal oil
• 500ml Stock (I used fresh chicken stock but obviously a vegetarian or vegan option would use vegetable stock)
• 200g Leeks (Trimmed, Cleaned and sliced)

Optional

• Sage leaves (To garnish)
• 1 tablespoon Lightest Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Directions

Step 1	Steam the cauliflower for 20 minutes then blitz with a little stock till absolutely smooth.
Step 2	Spray a heavy based saucepan with one-cal and gently sweat the leeks till soft and slightly translucent
Step 3	Add the cauliflower cream and all of the stock.
Step 4	Bring to the boil
Step 5	Stir through the almond milk and cream cheese. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Step 6	Serve with your choice of garnish. I used a lightly toasted sage leaf.

In my view it is definitely worth the effort of cooking the cauliflower separately and then making a puree to add to the leeks.  There’s something really good about the rich creamy mixture, with sweet, tender morsels of leeks adding depth to the finished soup.  My calorie count chart is for the cheese-free version.  A tablespoon of lowest fat philadelphia is around 20 calories, so it will only add 8 calories or so per serving.

I’ve managed to make this Cream of Leek soup without potato twice now in the last two weeks, and I really do love it.    I suspect it’s partly because it simply doesn’t seem like a diet recipe, 5:2 or otherwise.  But, at only 68 calories for a bowlful it’s a real winner.