Who doesn’t like a warm bowl of soup on a cool day?
Soup is a staple in our household, especially during the winter but do you know the real benefits of including soup into your diet?
Just to clarify, I’m not talking about the brightly colored yellow powdered soup in a box, or a can of soup, I mean REAL, homemade soup that fills the house with a comforting, grounding aroma.
1. Amp up the veggies!
If you’ve run a little shy on the veggies today, why not toss together a hearty pot of soup? If the kids are little veggie shy or you’d like to sneak in a less favorite veggie (kale for example), why not puree the soup into a beautiful thickness who’s veggies are unidentifiable (my fave)?
2. Increase the nutritional value of your veggies
Not only does soup allow you to pack a lot of veggies into one serving, but cooking the veggies increases many of their nutritional benefits. Cooked carrots for example have more absorbable beta carotene and cooking tomatoes releases their valuable lycopene. The good news is that all the nutrients that may otherwise be lost during extended cook times, remain in the soup base and ultimately end up as nourishment!
3. Spices that heal
Adding spices to soup not only improve flavor but are a boatload of nutritional benefit! Turmeric for example, is good for circulation, skin, digestion etc… Incorporating some spices that you may be less familiar with is a fun way to introduce them into your palette.
4. A complete meal in a bowl
Incorporating an animal or vegetable protein into the soup renders it a nearly perfect meal. Toss a dallop of healthy fat (creme, butter etc…) on top and you’ve thrown your soup into the next stratosphere!
Need a little soup inspiration? Click here
