Soup: hot, healthy and quick

Baby it’s cold outside, exactly the time of year to be eating soup.  And if you’re caught up in the holiday frenzy, let soup be your friend when it comes to planning a quick healthy meal.  

There’s an endless variety of canned soup in grocery stores, but many are still high sodium and pimped up with MSG to create the illusion of hearty flavors.  Both salt and MSG contribute to the sodium content of soup.  I’m more concerned about the use of those ingredients to hide the fact that a soup was concocted on the cheap, and needed an artificial flavor boost.  One way to ensure you bought a real ingredients is to buy soups labeled “low sodium” and “no MSG”.  If in doubt, check the ingredients list.

Some benefits of soup:

• It’s hot and mostly liquid, so it fills you up without a lot of calories.  A great antidote to the excess of holiday parties.
• Who doesn’t like soup?  And because it’s well liked, you can put all kinds of nutritious stuff in soup that kids will actually eat.  Well, mostly.
• It’s really quick, especially if you used canned soup.  Serve some cheese, raw fruit or vegetables and crusty bread and you’ve got dinner.
• So far no one has disproven the old adage that chicken soup cures colds and flu.  Frankly what else would you want to eat when you’re sick?  If nothing else, soup is soothing.
• Inexpensive.  Plus canned soup keeps for months, so stock up when your favorites are on sale.

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What to buy?  Varieties and ingredients change frequently, so any list could be out of date in a few days.  Here are 2 tips on choosing low sodium/MSG-free soups:

1. “Low Sodium” or “No Added Salt” are meaningful statements on food labels.  Since most commercial soups have lots of salt, pick the low salt ones.  You can always add a bit of your own table salt if you must.  
2. “No MSG” – In general, soups without MSG will likely be labeled as such, on the front of the can, to attract your attention.  Example: soe Progresso soups are labeled “no MSG”.  Note that absence of a label claim doesn’t necessarily mean soups do contain MSG.  For example, Pacific and Amy’s soups are organic; there’s no MSG claim, but MSG isn’t listed in the ingredients.  When in doubt, check the ingredients list.

No soup in the house?  Throw together your own.  To do that you need decent broth available.  If you don’t make your own (what did you do with that Thanksgiving turkey carcass?), there are some decent varieties to buy: 

• Pacific Natural, Free Range and Organic
• Kitchen Basics
• Savory Choice (in single serve pouches only)
• Imagine

Heat the broth in a big pot and start adding vegetables, either fresh, canned or frozen.  Soup veggies include: canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, green beans, corn, peas, lima beans, spinach, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, mushrooms, beets, cabbage, broccoli, kale, chard, cooked potatoes, etc.  You don’t have to use all of those, but hopefully you’ve got at least 4 available.  

Leftover cooked grains go really well in soups, and can help thicken them a bit as the soup eats up.  Barley, rice, quinioa and leftover cooked noodles all work.  Leftover mashed potatoes can also be used to thicken soup.  For protein, add a can of beans (kidney, pinto..) and throw in leftover cooked meat, if you have that around.  A pinch of herbs, like basil, oregano, thyme and parsley add more flavor.  Salt and Pepper to taste, and a healthy dinner is served.  

Soup recipes with Bill & Sheila

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