Many housewives do not imagine a complete diet for the whole family without first courses. At the same time, thick meat broth in combination with heat-treated oil gives a product that is not very useful. Here you have both carcinogenic trans fats and cholesterol in excess. On the other hand, you can’t do without first courses either. What to do in this case? A good solution for such an occasion would be a mashed soup with shrimp or chicken. However, the filling and taste of such dishes will depend only on your culinary imagination and eating habits.
The method of preparing the soup puree is almost the same for all cases. First, meat or vegetables are boiled, then they are carefully ground in a blender, usually together with the broth. Then add milk or cream, slowly and carefully introduce a thickener. Let the mixture boil for several minutes and the delicious soup is ready. For decoration use pieces of meat or vegetables, crackers white or rye.
Potato soup - mashed shrimp and caraway seeds
You can cook such a soup in a few minutes. Since potatoes are starchy vegetables, you do not need a thickener. You can also do without a blender and other technical devices. Of the products you will need 1 kg of potato tubers, milk or cream 800 and 400 ml, respectively, onions 1 head, a couple of cloves of garlic, a glass of peeled and boiled shrimp, salt, pepper, caraway seeds.
We clean the potatoes and onions and cook them together, as for ordinary mashed potatoes. Drain the broth and mash the vegetables in mashed potatoes. Add a little vegetable broth and put the mixture on low heat. Now our soup puree must be brought to the density of sour cream. If the extra calories are not scared, you can dilute the potatoes with cream and vegetable broth (1: 1 ratio). For flavor, add crushed garlic, pepper and salt to the soup to taste. Shrimp and caraway seeds are added to each portion separately. You can season our shrimp soup with a small slice of butter.
Soup "Goldfish"
If you like the taste and aroma of fish and seafood, you will certainly enjoy this first dish. The basis for it is the fish broth and heavy cream.
To prepare a fish soup with shrimp for a company of four, you will need 800 g of low-fat sea fish. A little product will go into preparing a liquid base. For our puree soup we need one liter of clear fish stock.
Cut the remaining fish into small pieces and fry in butter in a pan without a lid. Add here a glass of peeled shrimp and a couple of finely chopped onions. We simmer all 10 - 15 minutes, until all components are completely softened. Then grind the contents of the pan and wipe through a sieve.
Now prepare the basis of the soup puree. To do this, mix a glass of cream with a fat content of 33% with 2/3 of the broth and add the shrimp and fish mass there. To make our soup puree thicker, you need to add a thickener to it. It is simpler and more useful to simply dilute the spoonful of flour in the remaining quantity of broth and add a thin stream, with constant stirring, into the soup. Another way is to fry the flour first until golden in butter.
You can decorate the finished soup with dill, whole pieces of fish or shrimp.
Shrimp Pumpkin Soup
This light and nutritious soup will appeal to lovers of vegetables. For it we need 500 g pumpkin flesh, a large onion, a little oil, vegetable or cream (anyone who likes more), pepper and salt to taste. A glass (maybe a little more) of boiled shrimp. Cream is added in a small amount, half a cup will be enough.
Cut pumpkin and onion into smaller pieces and cook until tender. Then we pour the broth into a separate pan, and carefully knead the vegetables and wipe them. Set aside a few shrimps to decorate portions, chop the rest in a blender. Combine both mixtures, add cream and let the soup warm up. After this, gradually add the vegetable broth, until the soup is equal in consistency with the density of sour cream. Boil the mixture for a few more minutes, salt and pepper.
Since pumpkin perfectly harmonizes in taste not only with cream, but also with rice, the prepared soup can be seasoned with boiled cereals in advance. If this combination is not to your liking, sprinkle with mashed soup with grated cheese and fried pumpkin seeds. You can also use all kinds of spices: ginger, cloves.
Shrimp Cheese Soup
To prepare it, you will need 200 g of processed cheese (best Viola) and cheddar cheese, 400 ml of cream 20%, chili pepper and paprika powder, one Bulgarian red pepper, a package of peeled shrimps weighing 400 grams. Grate the cheese, mix with cream and melt over low heat, in a bowl with a thick bottom. Bulgarian pepper cut into very small cubes, scald in boiling water and spread in a cheese mixture. Boil shrimps, chop and add to our soup puree. Season with pepper and sea salt.
To make our soups airy and light, you can use a mixer at the last stage of cooking.
It is customary to serve crackers or garlic croutons, a white crispy baguette to the ready-made soup.
Good appetite!