Salmon and Vegetables en Papillote with French Onion-Apple Soup

Brace yourselves for two exciting pieces of information... Are you ready? First, starting today, Cooking in the Capitol will be debuting a new feature... :::drum roll::: .... nutrition! That's right- from here forward reach recipe I post will include detailed nutrition information, giving you serving size, calories, fat, cholesterol, and important vitamin information. As you know, nearly all of my meals strive to be healthy but this way you know exactly what you're getting and how successful I am in staying nutritious. Please let me know in the comments what you think of this new addition. If it's helpful, I'll try to go back and start adding it to old entries. Would you like that? I'm also just debuting a few categories today, but also tell me what you'd like to see in the comments and I'll add those categories in the future!

Second, this post also features a HEALTHY and VEGETARIAN version of french onion soup! I'm a huge fan of this dish. I mean, how can you not love richly caramelized onions, melted cheese, and toasted bread? But at restaurants usually this dish is served in beef broth and it's stuffed chock-full with calories, cholesterol, and fat - not to mention sodium. Unfortunately some sodium still gets through, even with my no-MSG added broth, but I trim on all sides to make this dish absolutely delicious yet far healthier. And, it even has an apple in it! The apple provides just an extra tinge of flavor and sweetness that cuts the soup nicely; you enjoy its addition while barely noticing it's there.

Difficulty: medium
Time: 2 hr 20 min (mostly cooking time)
Cost: $15.90



French Onion-Apple Soup
Time: 2 hr 20 (mostly simmering time)

Ingredients:
1.5 tbsp butter (unsalted)
8 c sliced vidalia onion (sweet onion)
3/4 tsp black pepper
1 apple, cut in julienne strips
1/2 tsp dried Thyme
1 bay leaf
1/4 c dry sherry
3 c vegetable broth, no salt added
1/4 c apple cider (you can sub apple juice)
1.5 tsp sherry vinegar
5 slices sourdough bread, cut in 1" cubes
3/4 c grated Asiago cheese

Heat a large pan over medium heat. Add the butter, swirling to coat as it melts. Then, put the onion in the pan. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, and then let it saute for an additional 50 minutes, only stirring occasionally. It should turn a golden deep brown, a rich caramelized color.

When the onion has caramelized, add the black pepper, apple, Thyme, and bay leave to the pan. Saute for 3-4 minutes or just until the apples have started to soften. Pour in the wine and let the mixture cook for 3 more minutes. Use a wooden or soft plastic spoon to scrape up any black bits on the bottom of the pan from the onions.

Add the broth and cider to the pan and bring everything to a boil. Then, reduce the heat, cover, and let simmer for 45 minutes. When the time is up, throw away the bay leaf.

Add the sherry vinegar and stir it in well.

At this point, as the soup finishes up, get you broiler pre-heating to high. Grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray and put the bread cubes in a single layer on top. Broil them for 2 minutes, turning over halfway through, or until lightly toasted. Then remove the bread from the oven and turn your oven to 500 degrees.

Put foil on the now-empty cookie sheet and then put 4 french onion broiler-proof bowls on top of the foiled cookie sheet. Split the soup evenly between the four bowls. Then divide the croutons between the bowls, wedging them in to form a top. Finally, sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top of each one. You should have about 3 tbsp of cheese for each bowl.

Bake for 8-9 minutes or until the cheese has melted. Serve immediately.

Servings: 4
Serving size: 1 soup bowl (10 oz bowl)
Nutrition: Calories 488; Fat 12g; Carbs 80g; Protein 14g; Sodium 1102mg

Salmon and Vegetables en Papillote
Time: 40 min

Ingredients:
1 tbsp I Can't Believe It's Not Butter-Light, softened but not melted
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp fresh dill, diced
1 lb salmon fillets, cut into two pieces
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 c leeks, julienned
1/2 c carrots, julienned
1/2 c snow peas, julienned

Get your oven pre-heating to 450 degrees.

Then, prepare your topping. Put the butter in a small bowl. Add the lemon rind, lemon juice, and dill. Mix until evenly combined and set aside for now.

Take two large sheets of parchment paper. Fold each one in half and draw half a heart (remember doing this as a kid?) and then cut the heart out, with the paper still folded. Then unfold and you have a whole heart! (Magic!)

Put each heart down on the counter. Put a fillet near the fold of each heart. Sprinkle the fillets evenly with the black pepper. Then, put half the vegetables onto each fillet. Finally, take you butter mixture and spoon half of that on top of each fillet/veggie pile.

Now, starting at one end of the heart, carefully fold the paper over and tightly fold and roll up the edges of the parchment paper, creating a tight seal. You want this fish completely enclosed so it cooks by actually poaching within the paper. Keep rolling until you have a tight seal all the way around. Twist tightly to secure.

Grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Then put the two parchment packets onto the cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the fillets from the oven after the 20 minutes and use a knife to cut open the top of the packets. Steam will escape quickly, so be careful! Serve immediately - each person can simply put the parchment packet directly on their plate.

Servings: 2
Serving size: 1 parchment packet (1/2 lb salmon and 3/4 c vegetables)
Nutrition: Calories 440; Fat 20g; Carbs 7g; Protein 55g; Sodium 183mg