Green Goodness Chilled Summer Soup

Yesterday my husband went to Costco to pick up some dog food. While he was out he asked me if I needed anything. I told him I needed romaine lettuce for the burrito bowls I was making. I knew that the quantity of romaine would be large, since it was coming from Costco. I was thinking three heads of romaine... well the package came with six! I hate wasting food and thought, oh my, what am I going to do with all this lettuce. It's just the two of us, so six heads of romaine lettuce is a lot! Well, I ended up using one head last night, so that left me with five. I know I could make salad, but five heads of lettuce basically means we'd be eating salad for five days. Not my idea of fun! I was poking around the kitchen for some lunch today and noticed I had a parsnip, a jalepeno pepper, 1/2 avocado and some cauliflower that also needed to be used. That's where I got the idea for a chilled soup. It's perfect on a hot summer day and makes a great addition to any meal, not to mention it is loaded with healthy veggies. It is also super quick and easy to make.

Green Goodness Chilled Summer Soup
4 cups vegetable stock
1 white onion chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1/2 jalapeno pepper seeded and chopped
3/4 cup chopped cauliflower
1/2 of a peeled and chopped parsnip
2 heads chopped romaine lettuce
1 cored and chopped green apple
1/2 of an avocado
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp sat
1/2 tsp pepper

Coat a saute pan with a small amount of non stick cooking spray. Saute the onion, garlic and jalapeno pepper for 3 minutes. Add cauliflower, parsnip and one cup of vegatable stock. Cook until the parsnip and cauliflower are tender (about 8 minutes).

In a blender add the two chopped romaine heads and 2 cups of vegetable stock. Blend until the lettuce is liquified. Next add the cooked veggie mix (onions, garlic, jalapeno, cauliflower, parsnip). Blend until smooth. Lastly add your chopped apple, 1/2 and avocado, 1/4 cup of cilantro, salt, pepper juice of 1/2 lemon
and 1 cup vegetable stock. Blend until smooth. Chill for 1 hour and serve.

Yields 4 sevings 145 calories, 4 grams of fat