5:2 Diet Recipes Celery and Spinach Soup

Unplanned 5:2 diet fast and a 5:2 Soup Recipe!

OK yesterday I might just have overdone things a bit – hence the idea that I might need an extra 5:2 diet day (does that make it 4:3?).  Lunch was a review meal at Kitchen Italia and Dinner another review meal at Bombay Brasserie.  It would probably have been ok without the extra cocktails…although I suspect the 5:2 diet actually makes you want to eat LESS on your ‘normal’ days.  The result of my overindulgence was that I found it quite hard to sleep and woke up feeling as if I never ever wanted to eat again.  And I DID try to be reasonable in the amount I ate, stuck to the boiled rice and avoided any more than a tiny morsel of naan.

So, in the end I looked at my schedule and the food in the fridge and decided that I’d try an extra fast day. I’m feeling almost normal now (just after 6pm), probably thanks to not much to eat other than some very healthy soup.

Celery is often touted as the perfect slimmer’s vegetable.  There are rumours that raw celery uses up more calories than it contains when you chew it.  I’m not convinced, but one stick of celery has just 3 calories, so it’s a good thing to snack on if you get hungry.  But, in my very delicate state, I actually wanted warm comfort food.

My normal recipe for celery soup is hardly fattening but it does involve milk, butter, crème fraiche and potato…so I thought I’d try for something a little lighter.   I’ve used leek and spinach to make the soup a bit thicker without adding calories and I softened the celery and leek in just a teaspoon of olive oil to cut down on the calories.  And, I used low fat greek yoghurt instead of crème fraiche at the end.  The result was a very tasty, filling soup which I estimate has

Celery and Spinach Soup

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Serves	2-3
Prep time	5 minutes
Cook time	30 minutes
Total time	35 minutes
Dietary	Gluten Free, Vegetarian
Meal type	Lunch, Soup
Misc	Freezable, Pre-preparable, Serve Hot

Ingredients

• 6 sticks Celery (sliced and cleaned)
• 1/2 Leek (sliced and cleaned)
• 100g Spinach
• 500ml Chicken Stock (Mine was made using 2 teaspoonfuls of Knorr touch of taste. You can substitute vegetable bouillon if you want to make a vegetarian version)
• 1 teaspoon Olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Low Fat Greek Yoghurt

Directions

Step 1	Place the celery and leek in a large heavy pan with the oil and stew on a low heat for 5 minutes or so, when the leeks are soft and translucent, turn the heat up a little so that the edges of the vegetables start to caramelise
Step 2	Pour in the stock and cook for 20 - 30 mins over a low heat till the celery is cooked. Add the spinach and cook for a
Step 3	Add the spinach and cook for a further 5 minutes
Step 4	Take the mixture off the heat and blitz with a hand mixer till smooth.
Step 5	Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Step 6	Serve with a dollop of yoghurt and if you like a little grated fresh nutmeg

The spinach seemed to thicken the soup without the need for any starchy food and the flavour was very rich.  Soup is an excellent choice for dieting because it really does help you stay feeling full for longer.  This particular recipe has under 60 calories per portion without the yoghurt and about 80 calories with.  So, it can easily be incorporated into the diet

Since this 5:2 diet day was unplanned, I then had to make an adapted version of the fish stew I was planning for supper.  Details follow in my next post.  I recommend both the slimline version and the full fat one (which simply uses more olive oil and wine for a richer sauce).

Just for convenience here are few other recipes suitable for using on the 5:2 diet

Slimline Livorno Fish Stew

Comforting Smoked Haddock Rarebit

Lime and Chilli Seared Scallops

5-2 Diet Haddock with Lemon and Parsley