How to Make Tasty and Nutrient Rich Soups

Submitted by Loring A. Windblad on July 19, 2010

With the increasing focus on obesity and the dangers that come with it, a number of people all over the world are switching to a healthier way of life. This generally includes changing their dietary habits to eliminate most of the junk food from their regular diet. This is an essential step in guarding the human body against the condition that is being considered to be a pandemic in certain parts of the world. Although most people dread obesity for the negative effect it has on their physical appearance, the condition plays a significant role in reducing the quality of a person’s life. Chronic joint pain, constant threat of heart disease and failure, difficulty in breathing as well as an overall feeling of lethargy is all part and parcel of obesity.

However, it is important to point out that only good nutrition is not as effective as when it is combined with a good regimen of physical exercise. So make sure that you include exercise as part of your daily routine as this will help significantly.

Soups can be extremely healthy, especially if they are homemade soups. Soups and broths can be made with vegetables, meat, or both.

In order to enhance the flavor of the soup, you can add chicken or vegetable stock to it. Readymade stock is generally very high in sodium and so it would be better to make your own stock. You can make stock out of all the parts of vegetables and meat that you would not normally use in your meals.

This would include chick bones and cartilage and fibrous stalks of vegetables. You can then use this stock along with other vegetables to make tasty and nutrient rich soups.

Chicken Soup Stock Recipe: For chicken stock, place the raw bones of a chicken in a pan along with some chopped fresh carrots, onion, a stick of celery and peppercorns, with some salt. Fill the pan with cold water and cover before boiling over low heat.

Once done, skim off the foam present at the top and allow it to simmer for about 1 hour. The same can be done with the vegetable stock except that it does not need to simmer after it has been boiled. The advantage of making your own stock, given the fact that it is easily available in the consumer market, is that it adds a significant amount of nutrients and vitamins to any soup that you brew after that. In order to make almost any soup creamier and thicker, one of the best tips to use would be to add a little milk or cream just before you begin to boil it. Even if you choose to have a chicken soup, it is highly recommended that you include a significant amount of vegetables to increase the nutritional levels of the broth.