Healthy Soup Recipes

It was only recently that I discovered that broccoli is in fact one of the healthiest vegetables we can eat. It has always been one of my favourites but since making this discovery, I have vowed to eat it even more frequently than I did before. Hence the reason for my coming up with this healthy broccoli soup recipe.

All you will need is as follows:

2 large heads of broccoli (broken in to individual florets)
2 large garlic cloves (peeled and roughly chopped)
4 fl oz (100ml) double cream
Water
Salt/pepper

Wash the broccoli florets and place them in a large soup pan. Add enough boiling water to almost - but not quite - cover them and simmer gently for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and simmer for a further five minutes before putting the soup in to a food processor and pulsing until it is almost liquidised. Return it to the pan and slowly stir in the cream over a gentle heat. Bring it back up to a simmer, season and serve.

This is by no means a question which can be answered definitively but I do believe that if we follow certain rules, our soup will be both thoroughly enjoyable and healthy.

The first rule is to always use fresh ingredients, be that vegetables, meat or fish. This very much includes the stock, which should always be home made wherever at all possible. The reason for this is that stock purchased in cartons - or even worse in the form of those horrendous little cubes! - will almost certainly contain artificial flavourings and preservatives. These unnatural chemicals impair the flavour as well as the healthy nature of our soup. Remember, a good healthy soup needs a good healthy base.

Secondly, don't overdo it with the number of ingredients. it is better to stick to three or four good wholesome ingredients which you know will complement one another than to add twelve or fifteen - which you know to be healthy - in the vague "hope" that they will work well together.

Try not to over-cook your soup. The stock, certainly, is likely to take a lengthy cooking time, simply due to the process by which it is made, but when we are making the soup itself, we should simmer it only long enough for our ingredients to be sufficiently cooked.

The one final thing I would suggest in this section is - if making a thick and wholesome soup such as broth - make your soup one day and eat it the next. The first person I ever heard say this was my grandmother and to this day I still wholeheartedly agree. I believe this is simply down to the individual flavours of the ingredients having had more time to infuse with one another.

Click here for my Healthy Chicken Broth recipe (pictured above.)

The first thing we have to do when considering making this soup is to ensure that we have a large pot full of fresh ham stock. The easiest way to do this is to boil our own ham.

When I am going to boil ham - either on or off the bone - I like to steep it first overnight in cold water. This removes much of the excess salt with which many such joints have been cured and ultimately benefits our health as well as our taste buds.

The following day, we place our ham in a large soup pot or pan and add enough boiling water to cover it completely. Bring back to the boil and simmer until cooked, anything from one to two hours, depending upon the size of the joint and whether it is on the bone (preferable) or off. When the ham is ready, remove it from the pan and use as required, reserving approximately 2 ounces for inclusion in the soup.

I like to leave the stock for a further overnight here prior to making the soup, so that I may skim off the congealed fat and impurities. This, however, is not essential.

The ingredients for the soup are as follows:

Ham stock
1 large bag of frozen peas*
2oz ham (chopped or shredded as preferred)
Freshly ground black pepper

Add the frozen peas to the warmed stock, bring to the boil and simmer gently for five minutes. Transfer the soup to a liquidiser or food processor and "pulse" to required texture. Return the soup to the pot and add the ham, seasoning with black pepper. Bring the soup back to the boil, remove from the heat and serve.

*Note that I always use frozen peas here as, other than those freshly picked within the last two hours, they are the healthiest option.

Fresh beef stock is made in a similar fashion to the ham stock described in the recipe further up this page, with two notable exceptions. It is not necessary to steep the beef overnight in cold water prior to cooking it but it is essential to leave the stock to cool, preferably overnight, so that the fat which will congeal on the top of it can carefully be lifted off, removed and discarded.

In order to make the soup described in this recipe, you will require:

2 pints of fresh beef stock
4oz shredded or finely chopped beef
4" fresh horseradish (scraped, halved length-wise and sliced in to crescents)
Small handful of fresh egg noodles per serving
Salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

Bring the stock gently up to a boil, add the beef and horseradish and simmer for about ten to fifteen minutes. Season to taste. Put the egg noodles in to the soup bowl and ladle on the soup. Allow a couple of minutes for the soup to heat the noodles through and serve.

Carrot and coriander (cilantro) is a combination which I very much enjoy. A delicious side salad can be made simply from grated raw carrot, roughly chopped coriander and a splash of white wine vinegar. Equally, the combination makes for a delicious soup.

For this recipe, which serves approximately three to four people, you will require:

2lb (1kg) of raw carrots (scraped and chopped)
3 large cloves of garlic (peeled and roughly chopped)
A handful of freshly chopped coriander (cilantro)
Boiling water
Salt and pepper to taste

Place the carrots in a large soup pot and add enough boiling water to cover them. Bring back to the boil and simmer gently for 20 to 25 minutes until the carrots are soft. Add the garlic and coriander, stir well and continue to simmer for another five minutes.

Remove the soup from the heat and carefully transfer it to a food processor/blender. Blitz to required consistency, season and serve.

I would not imagine that red bell peppers are an ingredient which most people associate with making soup but I can assure you that this recipe works fantastically well.

In order to make this Hot Pepper Soup, you will need:

4 large, red bell peppers (de-seeded and chopped)
1 large white onion (chopped)
1 tsp olive oil
5 garlic cloves (crushed)
1 small red chilli (chopped)
3 tbsp organic tomato puree
1 1/2 pints of fresh chicken stock
Finely grated peel and juice of 1 lime
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley to garnish

In a large soup pan, sweat the peppers and onion down gently in the oil until soft. Stir in the garlic, chilli, tomato puree and half the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for ten minutes.

Turn off the heat and allow the soup to cool slightly before pureeing in a food processor and returning it to the pan. Add the remaining stock, the lime juice and rind, chilli powder, tabasco and seasoning. Bring back to the boil and serve immediately, not forgetting a pinch of parsley garnish in each bowl.