Savory soups are calling out names this winter season. Did you know January is National Soup Month? Well, let us introduce to you HelloFresh who brings you the freshest and healthiest food, with a dash of fun, a sprinkle of learning, and a dollop of deliciousness, weekly to your doorstep!
HelloFresh is always heating things up in the kitchen with healthy, hearty twists on the classic comfort food = SAVORY SOUP. Their creative and savvy in-house Registered Dietitian, Rebecca Lewis says, “Store-bought, canned and restaurant-made soups are often thick, creamy, calorie-laden, and loaded with extra sodium. Cooking at home is the simplest way to take control of what you’re consuming and making sure It’s healthy.” Here are Rebecca’s top 5 reasons to cook and eat savory soup:
- Cook at home to control your sodium: Canned soups in the grocery store are loaded with salt to make them shelf-stable. In just one 10.5oz can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle soup has 2,225mg of sodium, which is equivalent to 93% of our daily recommended intake (which is recommended to be no more than 2300mg for the WHOLE DAY)! This is way more salt than the average person would ever realistically choose to put in a home-made soup.
- TIP: If you’re using canned beans in your soups – rinse them under hot water for 30 seconds to remove up to 50% of the sodium listed on the can!
- Quick and Easy: With our busy and chaotic lives, getting dinner on the table quickly is a major priority for most. Soups are an easy one-pot meal that not only make clean up easier – but get a flavor packed dinner on the table in under 20-30 minutes.
- TIP: Make a large pot and freeze the leftovers. You’ll have a fast and delicious home-made meal available for those busy days when you’d normally be tempted to eat out.
3. Light yet Filling: There is a stomach-brain connection that lets our stomach talk to our brain when we eat. With their higher liquid content, soups occupy a large volume in our stomachs and send a message to our brains that we are full – which stops our brains from producing our hunger hormones. This helps to satisfy any cravings we might have and reduce our desire to snack throughout the day.
- TIP: Add in beans (like cannellini or lentils) and/or whole grains (like quinoa or brown rice) to get an added boost of protein in soups. If using dried beans, remember do NOT add any salt until they are completely done cooking. Doing so before, makes the beans tough and increases the cooking time!
- Feel good: Soups gives us that emotional security of home and comfort, especially when you feel a cold coming on or when it’s cold outside. Soups warm us right to our core and can be a big help when we’re feeling ill. Hot soup helps us to stay hydrated and flush out the bugs that are bothering us. Not to mention that the steamy bowl can help clear congestion.
- TIP: Chicken soup is known to have anti-inflammatory properties, specifically helping to reduce upper respiratory infections.
- Get your Daily Veggies Part of this “feel-good” sensation we get from soups is the ease with which they can be loaded up with veggies that you may not normally eat.
- TIP: Tougher leafy greens like Kale, Swiss Chard, and Collard Greens are perfect additions to soup as they can hold up to the higher cook temperatures and longer cook times. They also help give soups that savory taste.
It is her mission to change the world by empowering people to take control of their health. Her passion lies in getting people back into the kitchen, reconnecting them with fresh foods, and rebuilding their confidence in having FUN with cooking.
When she thinks of cooking and eating, the image that immediately comes to mind is the comfortable and intimate nature of sharing a meal between friends and family.We are all busy in our daily lives, but taking a small portion of the day to slow down and focus on a basic need like food – sustains us more than just nutritionally. Food has the power to connect us to our bodies, our emotional drives, other people, and even nature itself.
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