A hearty bowl of soup can easily provide you with all the sustenance and nutrition needed for one meal. With the right combination of high-nutrient, low-fat ingredients, you can design a tasty and interesting weekly menu centered around soup. They key to making a soup heartier and more filling is to use at least one high-protein ingredient, such as beans, lean meat or tofu. Another option is to build up the soup's volume with chunky vegetables or whole-wheat pasta.
Bean and Lentil Soup
There are hundreds of great soup and stew recipes that center around beans and lentils, which are high in protein and fiber. Choose your recipe based on the time of year, what vegetables are available, and what spices you want to flavor with.
For the heart of winter, try making three-bean chili. Combine any three of your favorite kinds of beans, such as black beans, pinto beans and kidney beans. Add colorful bell peppers, tomatoes, corn, and onion to add flavor to your chili. Spice your chili with a healthy serving of cumin, coriander, oregano and chili powder.
In warmer months, try making rosemary lentil soup. Combine onions, carrots and celery with brown or green lentils. The added rosemary will give this soup a delicate, deep flavor. To make the soup heartier, add less vegetable broth, so that the soup is thicker.
Lean Meat Soups
One easy way to make a soup hearty is to add a lean meat, such as chicken or turkey. Create a hearty chicken rice soup with chunks of onion, carrots and celery. If you're feeling adventurous, make the soup even heartier by adding sweet potato. Top with chopped parsley, which is an excellent source of iron.
You can also use ground turkey or chicken to make meatballs to add to a soup. Try making an Italian wedding soup with turkey meatballs. Combine the ground meat with egg, breadcrumbs and parsley to make the meatballs. Add sautéed scallions, mushroom and celery to the broth. Add orzo pasta to the soup to create a silky, hearty texture.
Tofu Soups
For non-meat eaters, you can make great, hearty soups using tofu. You can sauté tofu with garlic and ginger, and add this to a vegetable or lentil pureed soup, such as pureed red lentil soup or carrot ginger soup. If you enjoy Japanese cuisine, make miso soup with tofu, bok choy, cabbage, rutabaga, scallions and seaweed. A hearty miso soup is both relaxing and invigorating.
Vegetable Soups
If you have the right combination of vegetables, you do not need to add extra protein ingredients to make a soup hearty. Try making winter vegetable soup with root vegetables, such as parsnips, carrots, rutabagas and potatoes. Add onions and leeks to add spicy flavor. Serve this soup up with a hearty bread.
Borscht is another hearty all-vegetable soup. Make a scarlet red borscht using fresh beets, carrots, celery, potatoes and shredded cabbage. Flavor it with red wine vinegar, light-brown sugar, caraway seeds, garlic and parsley.
Soups with Pasta
Pasta can add volume to a vegetable, bean or meat-based soup. Be sure to use whole-wheat pasta, which is much healthier than regular white pasta. Try making a pasta pesto soup. Add pesto---made with fresh basil, pine nuts, and grated Parmesan cheese---to a soup of onions, carrots, tomatoes, squash, and any other in-season vegetables. Add broken spaghetti to fill out this hearty soup.
You can also add tortellini to soup to make it heartier. Try adding vegetable, mushroom or squash tortellini to a simple vegetable to add taste and depth.
References
- "The Book of Soups"; Lorna Rhodes; 1989
- "Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen"; Deborah Madison; 2006
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