Monday Night Dinner: Carrot Leek Soup and Greek Yogurt Biscuits

Happy Valentine's Day!  No $150 prix fixe menu here tonight; just soup and a biscuit.  This soup is simple and delicious.  I initially made it for a certain someone on hangover day and was just what the doctor ordered.  Hard to go wrong with this one.  Greek yogurt biscuits are pretty great dipped in the soup, but I also like to slather them with Smucker's Simply Fruit apricot preserves and eat them on their own.  I'll be honest:  I don't love that they're made with refined flour, but the whole wheat flour would do two gross things: make them heavy and make them bitter.  I don't eat biscuits every day (even though I'd like to), so I figure that how infrequent they come across my plate, in addition to the fabulous healthy Greek yogurt in them, is enough of a concession to make them the delicious way with refined flour.  At least in my mind it is.

Carrot Leek Soup:

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 cup leeks (just white and light green parts) sliced crosswise
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced crosswise
• 1/2 cup flour
• 8 cups stock
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tsp Better Than Bouillon beef or vegetable base
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp agave nectar

Directions

In a large soup pot, melt butter, add olive oil, leeks, carrots, and garlic.  Cook until soft.
Add pepper and flour, cook for 3 more minutes.
Add stock and beef/veggie base, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add salt to taste, agave nectar, and cider vinegar.  cook for 5 more minutes.

Serves 4

PS- 2 cups is a big bowl.  You'll see what I mean.

Greek Yogurt Biscuits:

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt (I like Chobani)

Directions

Preheat oven to 450-F
Mix dry ingredients in a food processor.
Add chopped bits of butter and pulse in processor
Transfer to a mixing bowl, add Greek yogurt and stir with a spoon until just combined
Press into a 3/4-inch thick layer and cut with a 3-inch diameter biscuit cutter.
Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 12-15 min or until lightly golden.
Serve immediately.

Makes about 7-ish biscuits

Keep extras refrigerated in an airtight container.  I reheated these the next day and they were still great.  They're a little denser than other biscuit recipes I've used, but I kind of like the heartiness of them.

So a big-ass bowl of soup and a biscuit is 534 calories total.  You won't be hungry after this meal.

Not valentiney enough for you?  Fine.  Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter for your biscuits.  Boom.  Love is in the air.