Soups are great for a speedy lunch or snack that helps keep hunger at bay1, and it’s now easier than ever to make a healthy homemade soup. By cutting back on salt, sugar and saturated fats, eating soup can have several health benefits such as providing several of your recommended five-a-day, vitamins and minerals whilst also keeping you hydrated2.
Another great thing about making soup is that not only can you batch cook them, making nutritious ready meals available on-demand, they’re also really easy to prepare and cooking length can take no time at all.
What Makes A Soup Healthy?
Making healthy soup is fuss-free, and most recipes start with a good base involving sweating off a few key vegetables and allowing them to soften. From here you then add water or stock and any other extras, such as meat or more veggies and wait for it to cook through3.
Adding extra vegetables, beans or lean meat adds a good dose of protein, fibre, and vitamins and minerals to the dish. If you’re looking for a healthy option, avoid adding milk, or cream, into soups as this can heighten fat content and calories. Likewise, cheese should be used sparingly along with added salt and sugar4.
If you’re looking to make a start, you can find all the cooking ingredients you’ll need here to help make delicious, healthy and nutritional soups.
Different Healthy Soup Recipes
For a great soup without the calories, we’ve rounded up a few of our favourites below:
- Carrot & Lentil Soup5 – Lentils are great for getting that much-needed protein, and keeping you feeling full for longer. They also provides a good dose of iron, fibre calcium and vitamins. This recipe includes onion, celery, carrot, garlic and ginger to create the base with coriander, turmeric, caraway and cardamom added for further flavour. The lentils are added last before leaving the soup to simmer.
- Salmon Noodle Soup6 – This soup is low on fat and jam packed with flavor, keeping both your heart and taste buds happy. With a slightly different method, but just as quick to cook, the noodles are heated first along with the stock and curry paste before mushrooms and corn are added. The salmon is added last until cooked through when it’s then ready to serve.
- Simple Tomato Soup7 – For a classic favourite but one that’s low on calories and fat try the simple tomato soup. Tomatoes are a great source of vitamin A and C and are packed full of antioxidants8. The recipe is simple, and all you need to do is sauté chopped onions and garlic before adding tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and vegetable stock, bring to the boil and then allow to simmer.
Explore and experiment with other soups adding your favourite ingredients for a quick, nutritious food choice that will leave you fuller for longer and feeling energised.
Last updated: 29 April 2020
Sources
1 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8068733.stm
2 https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/health-wellbeing/diet-nutrition/nutrition/10-reasons-eat-soup
3 https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-make-soup
4 https://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/wellbeing/soups-the-best-and-worst-for-your-diet-26427
5 https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/carrot_and_lentil_soup_50261
6 https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/salmon-noodle-soup
7 https://neilshealthymeals.com/simple-skinny-tomato-soup/
8 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324493
