"Panera-style" Low-Fat Vegetarian Garden Vegetable Soup with Pesto

During the cold months of winter, I'm a big fan of Panera's soups. They always seem so light, yet filling. For awhile I was consumed with their Low-Fat Vegetarian Black Bean Soup, but lately I've been all over their Low-Fat Vegetarian Garden Vegetable Soup with Pesto. Panera describes this soup as "A low-fat vegetarian soup with diced tomatoes, sliced zucchini, yellow beans, fresh Swiss chard, cauliflower, bell peppers and pearled barley in a tomato broth garnished with a dollop of nut-free basil pesto. Served Monday, Wednesday and Friday." 

After many trips to my local Panera over the past few weeks (and a fair amount of money on $5 bowls of soup), I decided to try making a similar recipe at home. I found a "copy cat" recipe of the soup online, and then I modified it with ingredients I could find at my grocer in February. 

Long story short: This soup is really, really good! It's not difficult to make, though prep time with the vegetables took a little time. (I could work on my knife skills.)

"Panera-style" Low-Fat Vegetarian Garden Vegetable Soup with Pesto

Ingredients

1 cup dry pearled barley (+3 cups water)
1 cup chopped zucchini (1 small zucc)
1 cup diced red onion
1 cup chopped red bell pepper (1 pepper)
1 cup chopped Swiss chard
1 cup chopped cauliflower
1 cup chopped yellow wax beans (I used green beans due to availability)
Olive oil
32 oz vegetable broth
4 cups water
1 can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano
1 can tomato paste
4 minced garlic gloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons cilantro
1/2 cup Romano/Parmesan cheese mixture
Basil pesto

Directions
1. In a medium-sized pot, bring dry pearled barley to boil with 3 cups of water, then reduce to simmer while chopping/dicing raw vegetables (roughly 30 minutes for me).
2. Place olive oil in the bottom of a large pot and heat.
3. Add onions and zucchini, then sauté for about 90 seconds
4. Add red bell pepper and Swiss chard, then sauté for another 2 minutes.
5. Add vegetable broth, water, diced tomatoes (from can), tomato paste to the pot. Add cauliflower, yellow waxed beans and minced garlic to the pot and bring to a boil.
6. Add simmering barley to large pot, then lower temperature and cover pot. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
7. Stir in salt, onion powder, garlic powder and cilantro. Then add Romano/Parmesan cheese mixture, stirring until cheese is incorporated into the soup.
8. Serve soup hot. Garnish with basil pesto.

Image courtesy: Panera

So Good! Even better, it's low in calories. Panera lists a bowl of their soup as only 140 calories. I can't be sure my recipe yields the exact same nutritional results, but I'm guessing it's less than 200 calories per bowl.

Enjoy!