Food Trend Thursday: Souping

Yes, you read that right..souping is a thing now and was named one of the top 10 food trends of 2018. 

Many of you might not remember when juicing was a thing, but I sure do! I literally asked for a juicer  for my 23rd birthday. Juicing is a great way to include more fresh fruits and vegetables into your diet, the issue with juicing is that you are getting the water and vitamins from fruits and vegetables, but you remove all the fiber. Whenever I talk about fruits and vegetable, I always say fresh is best. That is because when you eat fresh fruits and vegetable you get all the water and all the fiber - unlike dried produce that has no water or juice which has no fiber. 

With a soup, you are able to keep the integrity of your vegetables, you can include whole grains, and you can have a protein source, and you can include a broth base - it is a complete package in terms of healthy meals. Many find that they can lose weight when including more soups into their diets because of the nutrient density but also because it fills you up. Soup has such a filling effect because "binding water to food slows down gastric emptying keep you fuller longer" as found by Barbara Rolls a professor of Nutritional Science at Penn State University. 

Now the kicker is here, not all soups are created equally. When you are looking to include more soups into your diet, try to include more broth based rather than cream based soups. The easiest way to do that is making your own bone broth. I keep a large freezer safe bag that holds all of my bones from a roast chicken, vegetable scraps from another dinner, and even some bones from Adam's chicken wings from the Husker game. Once a week, I empty the bag into a large stock pot with a hefty tsp of salt and a splash of vinegar. I cover it with water, turn the heat on low, and walk away. 6-8 hours later, I will strain off the scraps and I am left with beautiful bone broth that will then become the star of my next soup. 

Lately, I have been loving a Ginger Tumeric Chicken soup. It starts with onion, celery, and carrot but gets bumped up with a tbsp of fresh ginger and a tsp of turmeric. I then add 2 chicken breasts and cover with my homemade chicken stock until the chicken is shreddable. I remove the chicken and shred and then add back into the soup with 2 cups of chopped kale. 

A soup that I am really wanting to try is Thai Carrot Soup. It begins with onion, celery, ginger and garlic and 1lb of carrots! Saute for a couple minutes before covering with chicken stock and adding a can of coconut milk. Cook until carrots are tender and then puree with an immersion blender. Serve with a sriracha and fresh cilantro! 

The other reason I like making soup is that is can be portable. I use mason jars to warm and take my soup to lunch or in my food bag for a healthy, trendy lunch on the go. 

There is the scoop on soup! 

References

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/26/health/soup-food-drayer/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/04/01/the-scoop-on-soup/eaa1f84a-e373-442a-8c8a-edc5f7f8ad00/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.67cf91158284