Food – Soup’s On!

Current dietary guidelines recommend that adults should eat at least five portions of fruits and five portions of vegetables daily to support a healthy diet and reduce the risk of major illness. It’s time to bring on the soup! Vegetable or fruit, raw or cooked, filling, nutritious, flavor-induced soup is an ingenious way to contribute to that recommendation and satisfy even the most finicky appetites any season of the year.

Soup is a broth infused with flavor. Thin, thick, creamy or chunky, soup is an essential mainstay in the daily diet of most cultures. It can be a simple meal addition or a meal in itself.

Perhaps the simplest and most delicious way to incorporate generous amounts of health-promoting nutrient-dense vegetables in your daily meals is in a soup. Use a selection of vegetables such as potato, carrot, onion, leek, garlic and celery to make a flavorful basic soup providing vitamins and rich minerals. Add greens, tomato, cabbage, broccoli, turnip, sweet potato or beet to bump up nutrition and provide depth of flavor. Puree beans to thicken vegetable soups or use whole alone. Cream or puree soups using blended squash, carrot, broccoli, tomato or pepper, adding cashews, soaked and blended, instead of milk or cream to impart a delicious creaminess.

Top Benefits of Soup

Soup is economical:

It is adaptable to whatever ingredients are on hand. For a reasonable cost, a pot can feed an entire family.

Soup helps to fill up without adding unnecessary calories:

Most soups are low-fat and high fiber, which aid in meeting nutrient needs without excessive calories. Fiona Kirk who wrote “Soup Can Make You Thin,” states: “The wealth of ingredients in a bowl of soup provides a good balance of carbohydrates, protein and fats as well as the vitamins and minerals required to create energy and keep us firing on all cylinders.” http://rendezvoustucson.com/top-6-benefits-of-eating-soup/

Soup warms up body core:

Hot soup can increase core body temperature by increasing metabolism by 10–20% dispelling chill.

Vegetables have tremendous anti-inflammatory properties:

A bowl of veggie soup can help clear up mucus and aid a digestive system that has been weakened by sickness.

Vitamins and minerals don’t disappear:

Valuable vitamins and minerals are retained directly within the soup.

Soup improves tolerance of vegetables for children:

Studies have found that toddlers who were given veggie and herb packed soups for seven weeks showed an improved tolerance for vegetables of all kinds when compared with toddlers who didn’t eat soup. www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/1076907/benefits-of-soup/

Recipe

Creamy Tomato Bisque Soup

1 qt. tomatoes                                                        ¾ cup cashews, rinsed in hot water
1 6-oz. jar tomato paste                                        1 onion, cut into large chunks
1 cup hot water                                                      1 cup fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp. salt                                                                 ½ cup black olives, chopped
½ tsp. dried oregano or sweet basil
Puree tomatoes and tomato paste. Pour into pan. Blend hot water, salt, oregano or basil, cashews and onion until creamy and add to first ingredients. Add chopped tomatoes and olives. Cook uncovered on medium-low heat until hot but not boiling. Remove from heat and cover. Let stand 5–10 minutes. Serve.