Chef Wendell: Creating health with souped up soup
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Everybody loves a bowl of soup. Opening up a box or can of soup is a quick way to satisfy your hunger. It’s not likely though, that your favorite brand of soup offers you many vitamins minerals and fiber. No problem: ‘Soup-up’ your favorite soup by adding just a few refrigerator or pantry ingredients to boost your daily vitamin requirements.
- Add frozen or fresh immune-boosting vegetables, including carrots and red bell peppers, health-promoting spices like turmeric, oregano, basil, rosemary, pepper, or garlic.
- Cooked quinoa or brown rice-fiber, protein,.
- Fiber-chia or ground flax seeds-fiber, vitamins and minerals, and omega 3 EFA’s
- Drained beans: fiber, vitamins, minerals, and protein
- Sriracha, pepper flakes or Tabasco.
- Yeast flakes.
- Add a garden salad and a slice of hardy whole grain bread and boom!
Souped-up soups:
- Chicken soup: add fresh chopped raw garlic, frozen broccoli florets, peas.
- Tomato soup: add slivered fresh basil or favorite garden herbs and quinoa (protein).
- Italian Wedding: add more vegetables and raw garlic and Yeast flakes (B-Vitamins and protein) for parmesan.
- Black Bean soup: avocado and cilantro.
Please read labels:
- What you will not see on the label: BPA.
- Most soups come in cans, and most cans contain BPA, an endocrine disruptor.
- BPA cans are one of the biggest dangers of eating canned soups.
- CBS News reported on a study in 2011 by Harvard School of Public Health showed that people who ate canned soup daily just for 5 days had more than “1000 percent increase in urinary BPA” over people who had fresh soup for 5 days.
- While the conclusions of this study are debated, it goes to show that this toxin may easily and quickly build up in your system. MSG can cause migraines, headaches, abdominal cramps and other symptoms in people who are sensitive.
- High sodium levels can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. So opt for low-sodium soups whenever possible.