Vegetable Soups: Fight Cold Season and Get Fit!

No Comments | Written on January 10, 2012 at 11:00 am, by The Editors

Vegetable soup may be the most delicious secret weapon in your diet. Hearty and warming on a cold winter’s day, it’s loaded with low-cal ingredients that also just happen to be loaded with vitamins (such as kale and spinach and their wealth of vitamin C). When you make soup the main event at lunch or dinner, you’re doing your waistline a favor.

Homemade soups (such as this Easy Vegetable Soup) are also a lot lower in sodium than canned varieties. And for cash-conscious consumers (that means all of us), a pot of soup you cook up yourself is far less expensive, serving for serving, than store-bought soups.

A classic minestrone is a good place to start. You can use chicken or vegetable broth as a base for this Italian staple, and include all your favorite veggies: zucchini, sweet peppers, white beans, green beans, tomatoes, kale, spinach, and cabbage are the usual suspects. For added heft, include some peeled, chopped potatoes and/or small pasta, such as ditalini. But if you opt for pasta, cook it ahead and add it to the soup just before serving (otherwise it will get overcooked and mushy).

An even heartier minestrone is this Minestrone with Black-Eyed Peas and Kidney Beans, which amps up the protein and fiber in the soup. And basil, thyme, parsley, and a bay leaf make it ultraflavorful. (Check out all our minestrone recipes.)

It doesn’t get much more seasonal than this Root Vegetable Soup, with leeks, rutabaga, turnips, parsnips, and herbs.

If you love beef in the vegetable mix, try a Saturday Night Beef Vegetable Soup, which is so hearty it might be called a stew. Or how about a Moroccan Vegetable Soup, which is made with stew meat, beef broth, and vegetables, along with cumin, saffron, and cilantro for an exotic touch.