Chickpea-Vegetable Miso Breakfast Soup

Inspired by my latest edition of Whole Living magazine, I decided to try something a little different for breakfast and I made a veggie-heavy miso soup. I know that miso for breakfast is popular in Japan (or so I'm told), but had never tried it out for myself. So, this recipe is pretty much the one from Whole Living, but I pared down the recipe to just make one serving, not four, and I reduced both the cooking time and the overall fat content.

This soup didn't take very long to make, which is good, because it is breakfast after all. I know that when I wake up I'm cranky, need coffee, and have grumblings in my tummy, so breakfast must be a fairly quick ordeal. I woke up on my day off, so I had a little extra time to spare to make this gem of a veggie soup. It took me about 25 minutes, which I wouldn't exactly consider quick (for breakfast anyway), so to speed up the process I would chop everything up the night before and have it in a container ready-to-go. I've made this recipe about three times already (that's how you know it's tasty!) and I also started sautéing the broccoli with the celery and onions which shaves off another five minutes or so. Instead of coffee though, I drank some hot lemon water with this.

The coffee came later, lol.
                           

Miso-Vegetable Soup For One:
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
2 Tb. yellow onion, minced (1/8 an onion)
1 clove garlic, minced
half a carrot, chopped
1/2 c. broccoli florets, chopped
1/4 c. chickpeas (rinsed if from a can)
1/4 c. vegetable broth (can use water instead, but I always have an open container around)
1 c. water
1/2 Tb. white miso
Sea salt, to taste

1. In a small saucepan sprayed with nonstick, sauté the celery, onion, garlic, carrot, and broccoli for about 5 minutes, or until softened. 

2. Add the chickpeas, vegetable broth, and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes (you may have to simmer a little longer if you want your broccoli to be completely soft. I'm indifferent). Remove from heat.

3. Mix the miso with 1/2 Tb. cool water until blended, then stir into the soup. Add salt to taste, then serve!

This breakfast really is a nice change of pace, and I'm sure it will fit on everyone's diet/detox plan for this new year we've stumbled into. This meal will set you back only 1 gram of fat and 147 calories. Not only that, but you will gain 7 grams of protein, all your Vitamin A for the day, more than 3/4 your daily Vitamin C, and 8 grams of fiber. That doesn't even include the goodness you get from miso!

To make this gluten-free, simply be sure that you use GF miso (some contain barley) and GF vegetable broth (most organic kinds are). 

I don't really have any New Year's Resolutions other than to continue to eat healthy and stay active. Although, I would really like to juice more, so I'm going to work on that. Oh, and maybe one of these days I'll mess around with my camera long enough to figure out how to remove the date from each one of my photos...

Anywho, I feel like this year will be kind of epic compared to the steady last couple of years I've had, so I guess we'll see how it all turns out!