Winter is here along with the temptation to eat more, especially of comfort food.  Soup is one of the healthiest comfort foods and are more heart and waist smart when based on chicken, vegetable or beef stocks rather than adding white sauces and cream.  Soups create satiety (sensation of fullness) and studies suggest we eat around one quarter fewer kilojoules in a meal if we start with soup first.  Make a large pot of soup on the weekends or at night and allow this to simmer for a few hours and use later in the week.  Always add fresh vegetables such as tomato, mushrooms, and celery to boost the vitamin C which is often lost due to the long cooking times needed for the flavours to develop. Or serve with a salad or coleslaw. 

 

People with hypertension (high blood pressure) need to take care with the sodium (salt) found in stocks and flavourings (use more herbs, onion, curry, parsley and garlic) added to flavour soups. As soup is a fluid it assists with hydration and makes an ideal low fat post game snack at the club rooms (after netball or rugby), especially on a chilly weekend afternoon.  Try soup for breakfast after morning swim training.  For the athlete adding extra pasta (elbows, bow ties, spirals or instant noodles) and rice is a great way to boost the carbohydrate intake to assist the next days training. 

 

For soups to become a main meal include protein (chicken pieces, fish, beef or ham pieces, legumes and lentils), lots of vegetables and some carbohydrate (rice, pasta, potato or served with some form of grain based bread).    Reading soup labels will help to decide if the soup is a snack or a full meal.  Remember you rarely drink 100mls.  Look at the serving size or per cup (250mls serving).  For a snack choose soups that are under 420kJ in energy, under 2g fat and have less than 20g CHO per serving. Soups with noodles, rice, croutons or pasta added will contain more energy.

 

Watties Supreme tomato                         300mls                     360          14.5                   1.1            1110

Watties creamy corn & Chicken             300mls                      375          12.9                  1.5              1130

Watties spicy Thai noodle                    300mls                        270            7.6                   1.5             1080

Carb Options            tomato                 250mls                        225            8.2                   1.2               855

Carb Optons Thai Laksa                        250mls                       303            8.9                  3.2             755

Pam Creamy chicken                            200mls                        221            8.0                   1.9               476

Trident thai & noodles                           400mls                        760          38.8                 1.2             1560

 

Add extra vegetables such as celery, broccoli, grated or diced carrots to provide more bulk, fibre and beta carotene (an antioxidant) to these soups.  Traditional stock based soup mixes are very economical and allow you to customise the vegetables to suit the family taste buds as well as making the most of the seasonal vegetables (which are also often cheaper).  There are a range of these available from the supermarkets in various flavours.  Homemade soup mix bases are quick and just need water and a range of vegetables to be added.  For a higher energy soup and one that is more suitable as a meal add potato, pumpkin, kumara, parsnip and more of the starch based vegetables (corn, peas).  Add the fresh green and other vegetables towards the end or just before serving to preserve the vitamin C content and also to provide more texture (include mushrooms, broccoli, peppers, celery, shredded cabbage, carrots, spring onions and green beans).  To boost protein content add diced bacon, ham, tuna, salmon, chicken, or shaved ham to the soup.