When you think of soup, just think of broth and white wheat noodles, there are a thousand things that can be changed there to make it a much more complete, tastier and more nutritious dish. Adding veggies and legumes, turning them into a full meal with quality protein – especially useful at dinner – or adding spices, herbs and dressings to taste are some simple but useful tricks to make our bowls a better place. Get out the spoon and get ready to enjoy.
Always degrease well
Many of the things that add rich flavor and aroma to the broth, like ham or other parts of the pork, veal, and parts of the chicken like wings, also contribute quite a bit of fat. To preserve the good and eliminate the bad, we just have to degrease scrupulously: if we want it immediately and we don’t mind putting another pot in our kitchen, we can use a degreasing can, which thanks to the fact that the Fat floats on liquids so we can dispose of it for now. If we don’t mind waiting overnight, we can use the traditional method, leaving it in the fridge overnight and removing it with a spoon once it has solidified to the surface.
Mix some veggies in the broth to fatten it up
With it we get a greater feeling of satiety and a thicker and tastier broth: without a doubt, the carrot and pumpkin are my favorite options, as they melt completely and give a very creamy texture. I usually discard the leeks because I use the greenest and toughest part for the broth – which many people throw away, but it’s perfect for this as it also has a herbaceous and fresh flavor, just like the carrot leaves – but the onion does Turnips or parsnips are also perfect.
Add legumes
“If I have a pot of cooked legumes, I always add a few to the soup to increase the amount of fiber, protein and healthy carbohydrates: it’s a very good way to make this soup more filling,” says nutritionist Raquel Bernácer in Director of the Alimentarte project and author of Aprende a desayunar and Lunes sin carne. “Well what a discovery, as in the stew of life,” some will say. But it’s not the same: Here we’re very fond of adding legumes — chickpeas in particular — to the stews, which also have plenty of cold cuts, meats and other ingredients that don’t quite go with what the WHO says is healthy to eat, according to the Journal. It’s also not what we can eat on a normal day that we later have to carry on working without taking a three hour nap like we do (or at night, yes. Did someone in your family put a cross for you? Add a few tablespoons per serving of these skinless beans and mash them well in the broth: no one will know why it’s so plump and tasty, and they’ll no doubt eat it (don’t go too far , we are not looking for a puree texture).
and more vegetables
A handful of spinach, some sliced mushrooms or shiitake, leeks, celery, zucchini, squash, and carrot—others that haven’t left their full flavor in the broth—diced onion, cabbage or collards, broccoli, green beans, and even tomato cherries are one perfect addition to make soups not only healthier, but also tastier and more varied. So that all the vegetables are ready at the same time, we can play with the cooking times or with the way of cutting; The smaller we cut them, the less they need to cook.
Italian soups like minestrone are a great example: a bit of broth to warm you up, a bit of pasta and a bit of legumes, lots of fresh vegetables and a bit of grated smoked cheese to give it the finishing touch: if you change ingredients often you can you can spend months eating this for dinner without repeating the combination, and in versions like the Genovese Green you don’t even have to make the broth beforehand. If you still have that spiralizer you bought when zucchini was all the rage, pull it out of the drawer and use it with every veggie in Asian noodle soups.
Take the opportunity to cook other things that are also healthy
Another of our chief nutritionists, Juan Revenga, prepares the broth according to his mother’s recipe: two chicken carcasses, a small piece of veal shank, two knee bones, two large chopped leeks, two carrots, a small turnip and some fresh celery stalks. “Also, in the same pot, they always make a good sachet of chickpeas from the broth — the ad hoc sachet seems to me to be the best culinary invention since mayonnaise was invented — and then we divide it into three tuppers and freeze it in two of them.” “. With this we manage to optimize the energy of cooking – that of the fire and that used in cooking -, chickpeas tastier than if they were just cooked in water and a thicker broth: a masterpiece.
Remember there is life beyond flesh
Vegetables, natural or roasted, in the oven or in the same casserole to enhance its flavor, shrimp heads and skins, fish heads and bones – why do we worship fumet, but fish soup has practically disappeared? -, water from the rehydration of some mushrooms … there are many things that we can use to prepare a tasty broth, beyond the chicken-pork-beef combination (which also allows us to avoid degreasing afterwards). Here are three examples – mushrooms, fish and spices – that can be prepared in just ten minutes.
Add some healthy protein to turn them into a complete dish
“I always like to add an egg to the soup when it’s practically ready,” Raquel Bernácer tells us. “I let it simmer like a poached egg for two to three minutes and finish with the residual heat — it’s a great way to add extra protein and have a more filling dish, especially for people who like having a single dish to eat.” Dinner”. Anything with egg is better, and the soup is no less; but there are many other alternatives: turkey or chicken pieces, tofu or seitan, prawns or prawns, fish, the legumes we talked about before, etc. Traces of meat always cling to the carcasses in the broth: separating it to add the pieces to the soup is a bit of a hassle, but it turns out very tasty (personally, this type of manual work gives me a lot of peace of mind, so I like to do it).
Replace white wheat pasta with whole wheat, quinoa, or other grains
The amount of pasta we use in a soup isn’t usually a lot – around 30-40 grams per serving is usually recommended – but it will always be more filling and give us more fiber if we replace the whites with whole grains. Quinoa is a pseudocereal, but it works the same way, only its 15-minute cook time can evaporate a lot of the broth in the process; To solve it we can make a first boil of 10 minutes in water and finish cooking it directly in the soup. Brown rice takes even longer to cook, but a few hours before soaking can cut that time down significantly (this shrimp and vegetable soup might give you a good reason to try this technique).
Enhance its flavor with spices and dressings
Bernácer loves to add some miso to his broths. “It’s a very healthy way to enhance the flavor of a soup or broth without having to use bouillon cubes or salt” (it’s not that miso doesn’t have it, but with a small amount it adds a lot more depth than a plain salty ). What’s healthy about it? Basically the ability to add flavor without having to add things that aren’t. Our expert has other suggestions: “Lately I’ve been adding a lot of spices too, like turmeric, ginger, pepper, cardamom… They give the soups a very rich touch and allow them to be balanced in ways that don’t seem like they would we always eat the same thing. Spices not only add joy to our dishes when we use them regularly, but they’re also a great way to add more beneficial phytochemical compounds.”
and the final touch
With the same goal as in the previous step, Mikel López Iturriaga, the leader of all this, recommends “add chopped aromatic herbs, lemon or lime squeezer, ditto extra virgin olive oil”. For Asian-style soups, a little peanut butter dissolved in the broth adds flavor and texture, fresh, spicy chili, and some toasted sesame seeds for a nice finishing touch. Fresh or dried seaweed adds another layer of flavor to fish, and vegetables are topped with some grated cheese or nutritional yeast.