The ESD: Ella Soup Diet

So if you read my last post, you would know that my partner and I are on a bit of a diet after coming back from Italy. Sadly all that pasta and gelato has taken its toll on the waistline, and my partner decided it would be a good idea to do a soup diet when we got back to lose a bit of weight.

Seems like a simple thing right? Not so much. You see, my partner isn’t one for dieting, and so he didn’t want to do one of these ‘lose 5kg in 7 days’ diets which are all over the internet. He wanted to lose the weight over a longer period, and have our weekends as a bit of a break (more like a lot of a break…we have been really going all out on the weekends which I think defeats the purpose of the diet…but anyway). So I’ve gone along with this thinking that it wouldn’t be that hard, and a nice thing to do while supporting one another and doing the same thing together.

Well, the first week we used an infomercial cookbook that we found at his parents place, and were pretty excited by the prospect of making soups in the blender in as little as 20 minutes using a soup blender! Sadly, the soup diet was too good to be true, and was actually the most depressing diet ever. Not only were the soups basically water, some of them were so full of ingredients like ginger that they were basically inedible. What this led to were two hangry people, which is never a good combination!

So we ended up going rogue and I’ve been looking at recipes and adapting them as I need, and this take two on our diet has been a huge success. The soups taste a lot better as I’m making them on the stove, and they have the ingredients we enjoy eating. I’ve really loved the different soups we’ve been trying and haven’t really felt like I’m missing out on anything. That being said, I think because I usually eat healthily during the week, I’m not noticing a dramatic loss in weight from it. But my partner has already lost a whole heap (I am really jealous), so hopefully I’ll get that magic weight loss soon! The main thing for me is that I’m not eating celery water with 8 cloves of ginger, which is what the first soup diet was like. Life is too short for bad meals!

So I wanted to share one of the soups I made this week which was absolutely delicious. Whether you’re dieting or not, it’s a delicious winter warmer perfect for these cooler nights, and it is super healthy!

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Turmeric Vegetable Soup

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

Total Time

40 mins

 

Course: Dinner

Servings: 6 bowls

Ingredients

• 1 onion diced
• 2 carrots chopped
• 2-3 stalks of celery chopped and leaves removed
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 tablespoon of Ground Turmeric
• ½ teaspoon of minced ginger
• 4 cloves of garlic minced
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 5-6 cups of boiling water
• 2 vegetable stock cubes
• 1/2 cauliflower cut into florets
• 1/2 broccoli cut into florets
• ½ bunch of kale chopped
• 2-3 handfuls of spinach
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat a large pot over a medium heat and add half of the 1/2 cup of water and onion. Cook, stirring for about 5 minutes or until the onions begin to brown.
2. Add the carrots and celery to the pot and cook for another 3-5 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften. Add additional water if they start to stick.
3. Add the turmeric, garlic, ginger, smoked paprika, and the remainder of the 1/2 cup of water to the pot and stir to coat the vegetables, cooking for about 1 minute.
4. Add the water, stock, salt and pepper to taste, and bring to a boil before reducing heat to low. Add the cauliflower and broccoli and stir, then cover and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the cauliflower and broccoli is tender.
5. Add the kale and baby spinach to the pot and stir. Cook until the kale has softened, about 5 minutes.
6. Serve immediately with additional salt and pepper if required.

I was a bit unsure how this soup would turn out, but it was absolutely delicious! I loved the flavours that came out in the meal, and it was a lot more subtle than I thought it would be with the turmeric. I couldn’t believe how well the flavours worked together, and what seemed like such a simple broth was so delicious!

The best thing about this soup is that it is super healthy, but also really filling. You won’t feel hungry after a bowl of this (unless my stomach has shrunk), and it feels as far from a soup diet recipe as you can get! It was satisfying and just tasty, perfect for a winter warmer.

If you aren’t on a diet, you can easily use a teaspoon or two of olive oil in this recipe to give it a bit of extra flavour. You could also add in some beans or rice noodles if you want it to be a bit more substantial. I reckon a can of chickpeas would take this soup to the next level, so if you try it with that let me know!

I don’t know how long we will be doing this soup diet for, and we’ve had a couple of friends pay us out asking us if they should blend up thai takeaway so we will eat with them. But if we keep making soups this tasty, it won’t be so bad!

Until next time, happy eating!

Ella xx