Dinner time rolled around and I needed to pull together an awesome meal (that fit into my eating plan!!!) with the ingredients I had on hand. I had ground turkey and black beans! I had a pack of frozen spinach! Sounds like the making of a soup. Since the South Beach diet limits dairy, I needed to make something very delicious without cheese. Normally, I pair bean soups up with cheddar or Parmesan cheese, but tonight I needed to make one that didn’t rely on cheese for flavor. Also, it couldn’t taste too “tomatoey,” or my hubby would not like it. Here’s what I came up with:

9 oz chopped frozen spinach
20 oz ground turkey
1 can black beans (15 oz)
1 can V8 juice (12 oz)
4 cups chicken broth (low fat & sodium)
6 cloves garlic (yes, that’s a lot of garlic!) pressed
1/2 Tbsp each cumin, ancho chili powder, garlic powder, thyme, and paprika
1 Tbsp oregano
2 Tbsp dried onion flakes

Now, obviously, you should adjust the spices according to your taste, and if you keep a prepared taco seasoning on hand, that would probably work just fine. You could also chop an onion and use that instead of the onion flakes, if you don’t keep them around.

Put the broth, the beans, the V8, and the spinach in your soup pot and bring them to a simmer.

Brown your ground meat with the garlic and, if you’re using fresh, the onion. Add the meat and the spices to the soup and bring it to a simmer. SERVE.

I garnished mine with chopped tomato. It would also be good with some fresh, ripe avocado on top, or, if you don’t have any reason to cut out dairy, CHEESE.

This soup REALLY hit the spot! There’s nothing I love better than fast, filling, HEALTHY food!