Healthy soups don't need to be boring and while Jamie Oliver can give you recipes to prepare in 30 minutes and Curtis Stone can feed your family for under $10, both of these hot little numbers can be prepared in under ten minutes and most of what you need is probably already sitting in your fridge at home.
Soups are great for cold winter nights, freezing extra serves for later and a great cure for the dreaded man-flu. Even if you live a busy lifestyle, all you need is ten minutes to prepare your ingredients and then leave all the hard work to your slow cooker. If you don't already have a slow cooker they are a valuable addition to your kitchen from as little as $30. You can also leave your soup in the slow cooker after it is ready on the 'keep warm' setting, so you can pop the soup on anytime during the day when you have time and don't need to worry about when you want to eat. Stove-top cooking will also work for both of these recipes, but requires more supervision.
Both of these recipes are reasonably flexible, if you don't have these exact ingredients or want to use up some veggies in the fridge, the more the merrier. Even if you need to purchase everything from the store, you can usually pull everything together for $6-$10.
Vibrant Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup
Ingredients1 Brown Onion
2 Cloves Garlic
½ Butternut Pumpkin
1/8 Japanese Pumpkin
1 Sweet Potato
2 Carrots
1 Tin of Creamed Sweetcorn
1 – 1.5 L of Vegetable Stock (the liquid stock is generally better)
Sour Cream (to taste)
Crusty Bread
Method1. Brown roughly chopped onion and garlic in a fry-pan and add to slow cooker.
2. Peel carrots, sweet potato and pumpkin, roughly chop and add to slow cooker.
3. Add tin of sweetcorn.
4. Pour stock into slow cooker so that vegetables are just covered.
5. Leave slow cooker on high until vegetables are soft. Cooking times may vary, but this can take up to 3 hours or 30 minutes on the stove. You can choose to cut your vegetables into smaller pieces to reduce cooking time.
6. Use standard blender or stick mixer to blend mixture into smooth consistency.
7. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and salt and pepper to taste along with a side of fresh crusty bread.
Hearty Chicken and Vegetable Soup
Ingredients1 Zucchini
1 Carrot
2 Corn Cobs
¼ Butternut Pumpkin
½ Red Onion
2 Cloves Garlic
1.5 L Chicken Stock
1/3 Packet Vermicelli Noodles
4x Chicken Legs (skin removed)
Maggie Vegetable Seasoning (optional for those who prefer more salt)
Crusty Bread
Method1. Place peeled onion and garlic into food processor (or finely chop) and process into small pieces.
2. Put onion and garlic in fry-pan and cook on medium heat until onion is slightly transparent, then place into slow cooker.
3. Place peeled and roughly chopped carrot, pumpkin and zucchini into food processor (or grate/finely chop) and process into small pieces.
4. Cut corn kernels off the cob and add to slow cooker.
5. Place chicken legs into the slow cooker and cover ingredients with chicken stock.
6. Leave slow cooker on high until chicken is cooked, depending on your cooker this may take up to 3 hours.
7. Remove chicken from soup and strip meat off bones. Roughly chop chicken meat and return to soup.
8. Add vermicelli noodles to the soup. These will only take a few minutes to cook and you may need to add extra water or stock at this point.
9. For those who like an extra salty flavour, I like to add a few splashes of Maggie Vegetable Seasoning into their bowls before serving. Serve with a side of fresh crusty bread.
I hope you enjoy these delicious soups as much as we do. Not only are they cheap and easy to prepare, they are also a great way to ensure your whole family is getting their recommended daily serve of veggies.
