Soup can be an easy way to significantly increase our vegetable intake and can be fun for children to help us make. If you have some frozen vegetables, you can cook them in some vegetable stock and then simply blitz with a stick blender to produce a super quick soup. If you have some fresh veg that needs eating up try this recipe…
Courgette soup
Serves 4
- Chop 4-6 courgettes into slices
- Add them to a saucepan with about 3 tbsp of olive oil and stir regularly over a medium heat
- After about 5 minutes add some chopped garlic cloves - I normally add about 5 cloves as I love garlic
- Continue to cook until the courgette is beginning to brown
- Add 750ml of vegetable stock and a handful of chopped fresh basil if you have it. If you don’t have fresh basil add another herb like mint, coriander or flat leaf parsley. You could also use dried herbs
- Bring this to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 8 minutes
- Once cooked use a stick blender to blend 2/3 of the soup, keeping the rest chunky for some texture
- Add 50g of grated parmesan or chopped feta and stir over a gentle heat
- Add milk of your choice (about 1/4 cup) or the same amount of single cream
- If you have fresh parsley sprinkle this on top of the soup and serve
Top tip: If you have some leftover, you can blend the soup up and use as a sauce over some pasta or noodles.
Upgrade your tinned soup
If you’re running low on supplies and can’t make your own soup, here are some ways to make your tinned soup a little more interesting…
Add herbs
Heat your tinned soup gently and add some fresh chopped herbs to make them more nutrient dense.
Pumpkin seeds
If you have some pumpkin seeds, dry fry them in a pan with no oil. Keep stirring them as they can burn easily! The seeds will soon puff up and when they do remove from heat and leave them to cool down. They have a lovely nutty flavour and can be sprinkled on top of your soup.
Jo is a Registered Nutritional Therapist who aims to support clients to develop life-long habits rather than adopt short-term unsustainable plans. Find more top tips from Jo over on her Instagram @vitalife_nutrition.