Healthy Tortellini Soup Recipe

When my husband was diagnosed with heart disease, I started looking for ways to create healthy meals that we would both enjoy. I wanted to make a soup similar to one we had at a family-style restaurant. I found some dried cheese tortellini on the pasta aisle in the grocery store. I picked up a couple of cans of Italian soup and a couple of cans of vegetable soup. The first attempts were not great, but over time I decided that the vegetarian vegetable soup in the tomato base worked best. Unfortunately the soup company discontinued the Italian soup variety. I tried adding Italian seasoning to tomato soup, but that just wasn't right. Finally I poured about half a jar of pasta sauce into the soup with a little extra garlic and that did the trick. My husband suggested I should just use the whole jar, and that's what I've done ever since.

One of the reasons I like this soup is that it has no meat. It is not strictly vegetarian because of the rennet in the cheese. However it is much healthier than most of our family favorites. It would be even better if I used a low sodium broth and frozen mixed vegetables, but one of the other reasons I really like this soup is that none of the
ingredients require refrigeration. This is one of the fallback meals for when we are without power, or when I'm watching the budget and shopping in my pantry. It doesn't take long to make and doesn't require a lot of fussing over to fix, which is perfect on those evenings after I've been hard at work all day. It's even better reheated the next day after the tortellini has absorbed more liquid from the soup stock.

So here's the recipe for Healthy Tortellini Soup.

Ingredients:
1 package dried cheese tortellini
2 cans vegetarian vegetable soup
1 jar pasta sauce
about 6 cups of water
about 1 tsp salt
garlic powder to taste
italian seasonings to taste

In a large pot or dutch oven, bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add dried tortellini and salt. Bring back up to a boil and let cook for 20-25 minutes until tortellini pasta is no longer tough.

Add canned soup and pasta sauce. Stir in 2 more cups of water (use it to rinse out cans and jar). Bring back up to a low simmer. Check for seasoning. Add garlic powder and italian seasoning as desired.

Ladle into large soup bowls and serve with hot garlic bread. Makes 6 - 8 servings of healthy tortellini soup.