Soup
100%
1
By Patrick Ryan
Soup
13 steps
Prep:30minCook:1h
Low calorie soup to keep full during dieting.
Updated at: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 00:21:15 GMT
Nutrition balance score
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Ingredients
1 servings
1yellow bell pepper
1 headgarlic
1onion
medium
1 headcelery
½ cupgreen lentils
1can Beans
1 headspinach
12 ozbaby spinach
12 ozfrozen kale
5baby carrots
1 sprigthyme
3 sprigsrosemary
2bay leaves
6baby sweet bell peppers
4chicken thighs
2 tablespoonschicken broth concentrate
2 tablespoonssalt
1 tablespoonpepper flakes
1shallot
1 gallonwater
Instructions
Step 1
1. Chop/cut all ingredients as mentioned above. Add oil to a 8 or 10 quart stock pot. Add carrot, celery, onion, bell pepper, baby bell peppers, shallot, and garlic to oil over medium heat. Lightly season with salt and pepper. Do not brown them, you want them to ‘sweat’ down.
Step 2
2. Depending on protein choice: if you use ground turkey or ground chicken, brown it in a skillet and drain the fat. I also use a paper towel and let it rest on there to absorb even more oil. If you use chicken breast or chicken thighs (or fresh turkey), you can add it right into the soup as it will cook as the soup cooks so skip to the next step. If you do end up pre-cooking the chicken, I recommend skimming the top of the water as it cooks to remove the white residue. Once the chicken is cooked, you can use the leftover water from cooking the chicken instead of all water just make sure the chicken is to temp. One reason I also like adding it to the soup raw is the chicken will cook as the soup is being made so you avoid tougher pieces of chicken or turkey later. With ground chicken/turkey, it doesn’t really make a difference as it tastes the same even though it was pre-cooked.
Step 3
3. Once the ingredients in Step 1 are ‘sweated’ down, add the protein, toss in the shredded cabbage, spinach, baby spinach, beans, lentils (if you are using them) and fresh (or dried) herbs (thyme, rosemary, and bay leaves). Before adding water, I give everything a big stir and then sprinkle salt, pepper, and cumin/paprika/or other dried spices of your desire.
Step 4
4. Add ½ gallon of water (or broth) to the pot. Give everything a big stir and let the spinach begin to wilt down. Give everything another big stir and add more water until all ingredients are submerged with a little extra water on top.
Step 5
5. Cover and bring to a boil.
Step 6
5. Once at a boil, reduce heat, slightly tip the lid off and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until the cabbage and veggies are nice and tender.
Step 7
6. If you can spot them, remove the dried herbs or just be on the lookout for them as you eat!
Step 8
Best part, this ENTIRE huge pot of soup has UNDER 2,000 calories total! So in between your protein shakes, you can guilt free eat this soup pretty much as you want (always check with your dietician of course, but I ran the nutritional facts and was amazing as how few calories this filling soup has). This is LOW on protein so you can definitely pump up the protein in it just account for it overall. The soup is really helpful for me during stalls because I never am hungry, am getting my protein from shakes, but then can eat this during the day! You can also jazz it up sometimes by adding a little hot sauce (check nutrition label as many have carbs/sugars but even something like fresh chives on top of the soup can add another layer). I also sometimes squeeze a little lemon on the top of a bowl to add a citrus kick to keep it from being the same exact taste every time.
Step 9
Note: you could definitely use some pre-made chicken stock or broth but I find even without it, the soup has TONS of flavor and can avoid the sodium spike from premade broths.
Step 10
There are endless combos to this soup but the keys are TONS of spinach and kale plus celery and onions, they are all great and the kale/spinach is definitely a huge healthy filler. Same with the celery. The only ingredient I don’t really increase is carrots as they have a little more carbs than others. But ultimately, just adjust based on your goals. I don’t add potatoes for obvious reasons. You could throw in Brussel sprouts instead of cabbage as another idea.
Step 11
While the beans and carbs add a bit of carbs, in terms of how much soup this makes the 1 can won’t make a big difference but you could always omit them. They do have some protein in them so it is a balance on what your needs are. But you can 86 these and I’d say throw in another head of celery, more kale/spinach.
Step 12
This is super easy to sub in other veggies like green beans or broccoli or cauliflower, zucchini, asparagus, etc. Just try to stay away from starchy vegs.
Step 13
These are just ideas but folks always ask me about my soups and thought I’d put a recipe and blurb thing together!











