• Home
  • Cocktails
  • Culture
    • Dance
    • Opera
    • Theatre
    • Outdoor
    • London Sights
  • Featured
    • Books
    • Home Delivery
    • Recipe Kits
    • Giveaways
    • Homes and Gardens
  • Recipes
    • Meat
    • Soups
    • Lunch
    • Starters
    • Mains
    • Sides
    • Desserts
    • Cakes and Sweets
    • 5:2 Diet Recipes
    • Fish and Shellfish
    • Meat
    • Poultry
    • Vegetarian
  • Restaurants
    • Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia
    • Bermondsey, Borough and London Bridge
    • Chelsea
    • Camden
    • City of London
    • Clerkenwell
    • Covent Garden
    • Docklands
    • East London
    • Kings Cross
    • Knightsbridge
    • Kings Cross
    • Kensington
    • Marylebone
    • Mayfair
    • Oxford Circus
    • Oxford Circus
    • Paddington
    • St James
    • Soho
    • South Bank
    • South London
    • The Strand and Embankment
    • North London
    • Victoria and Pimlico
    • West London
    • Out of London
    • Miscellaneous
  • Travel UK
  • Travel Europe
    • Belgium
    • Croatia
    • Czech Republic
    • First Visit
      • Bulgaria
      • Netherlands
      • Poland
      • Romania
      • Slovenia
    • France
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Italy
      • Sicily
    • Ireland
    • Portugal
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Travel Other
    • Caribbean Travel
      • Antigua
      • Barbados
      • Grenada
      • St Lucia
    • Ecuador
    • Egypt
    • India
    • Qatar
    • Mexico
    • Oman
    • Rodrigues and Mauritius
    • Sri Lanka
    • USA

London Unattached - Luxury London Lifestyle

Luxury London Lifestyle for Metropolitan Singles and Couples - food, travel, restaurant reviews - London Unattached

You are here: Home / Recipes / Lunch / Overdone it at Christmas and New Year?

Overdone it at Christmas and New Year?

January 1, 2015 by Sarah James 8 Comments

Tweet
Pin
Share
Flip
Yum
Share

Last Updated on June 30, 2015

Healthy Soups for the New Year:

It’s the 1st of January; I had a lovely Christmas with family and friends and brought in the New Year with some style (luckily not captured on camera!). Like many of us I suspect, I’m now dreading stepping on the scales and facing the damage!

One way that I always manage to shift some weight is to get my act together and make soup; I make enough to be able to freeze it in individual portions (the pour and store freezable bags are brilliant for this), so that I don’t get bored of having the same soup each day. I can then take it into work and heat it there for a delicious and guilt free lunch.

So when I was challenged to create a healthy soup I was keen to get cracking. I was given a soup maker, and decided to make a couple of my favourites in it. I have to say that I was sceptical about the soup maker, thinking it would turn out to be yet another gadget to be used once and then stuck in a cupboard to gather dust; but I absolutely love it – it’s make the whole thing incredibly easy with less mess and washing up!

The first soup I made was a healthy minestrone. I think it came out pretty well for my first attempt using the ‘chunky’ option on the soup maker.

minestrone

minestrone made

Ingredients:

Half a packet of lardons

1 400g tin Borlotti Beans (I pulled 2 from the cupboard originally, but only used 1 in the end)

2 onions

2 carrots

2 sticks celery

2 tablespoons tomato puree

3 large fresh tomatoes

1000ml vegetable or chicken stock

Couple of handfuls small pasta shapes

Seasoning to taste

 

Method:

I fried the lardons first, then added the vegetables, puree and stock, and set the soup maker to ‘chunky’. After 20 minutes I wizzed it a bit until the pieces were smaller but still visible. I then added the beans and pasta and cooked for a further 8 minutes. Seasoned, and ate!

This is the sort of soup that keeps you full and able to resist the desire to snack.

The second one I made was simpler still; a pepper and tomato soup.   If you belong to a certain slimming group this would have a zero points value.

tomato soup

tomato soup made

Ingredients

(I used more than is shown in the photo)

2 onions

3 red/yellow or orange peppers

1 red chilli (optional)

600g tomatoes

1000ml vegetable stock

Seasoning to taste

Method:

I put all the ingredients into the soup maker and set it to the ‘smooth’ setting. As I like a bit of heat, I added a couple of dashes of chipotle Tabasco sauce at the end to give it a smoky kick.

A less healthy version of this would be to add a little crumbled feta or goats cheese to the piping hot soup.

For a fuller flavour you can roast the tomatoes and peppers first.

Here’s to a healthy and slimmer 2015!

 

Filed Under: Lunch, Recipes, Soups, starter Tagged With: healthy, Low calorie, soup

About Sarah James

Sarah works full time in the NHS as a serious education and organisation development director. When she lets her hair down it’s to indie bands, preferably live, as she seeks to retain her rock chic status. Sarah makes a mean cocktail and loves trying out new food and drink recipes. Out and about she’s often found sipping champagne, fuelling her curry addiction, and enjoying fine dining. Sarah loves exploring both in the UK and abroad, especially places that are off the beaten track, and/or offer fantastic local food and drink.

Comments

  1. Mrs Linda Watson says

    November 22, 2018 at 7:54 pm

    Perfect after the rich eating on Christmas Day….

    Reply
  2. maddalena dalton says

    February 27, 2018 at 11:04 am

    Going to bookmark this soup recipe need it this week!

    Reply
  3. Judith Allen says

    January 1, 2017 at 11:03 pm

    We’ve just had a simple soup to use up random veg, and very welcome it was after Christmas stodge. This one looks good, I love mini soup pasta.

    Reply
  4. Bintu @ Recipes From A Pantry says

    January 14, 2015 at 9:42 am

    I have never tried a soup maker but it seems to make your life very much easier.

    Reply
  5. Kat Allinson says

    January 12, 2015 at 8:50 pm

    This looks delicious, will have to give it a go!

    Reply
  6. Stevie Wilson says

    January 3, 2015 at 9:03 pm

    Wow.. a soup maker? what brand do you have? I am dying to find this. I don’t like the salt in prepared soups.. and I need to make my own!

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      January 4, 2015 at 9:26 am

      Sarah was using a Morphy Richards one. Mine is a Froothie

      Reply
  7. Pamela Morse says

    January 3, 2015 at 9:57 am

    I have never heard of a soup maker. I like the idea. It saves a step.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Follow Us

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter

About London-Unattached

  • Enquiries/PR
  • London Unattached Contributors
  • London Unattached Privacy Policy
  • Media Pack

London Unattached Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter here. We promise not to spam - and you can unsubscribe at any time

Recently Published

  • Ivy Asia Magic of the Blossom Dragon Menu and Beyond
  • Bedford Lodge Hotel and Spa – Royal Afternoon Tea and More
  • Everyday at the New Diorama Theatre

The Frugal Flexitarian

Looking for more recipes? Check out our new site, The Frugal Flexitarian, for easy, cost effective recipes to enjoy at home.
Find My 5:2 Diet Recipes quickly and easily

Find Us

blogl
VuelioTop10Badge2020

Copyright © 2022 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in