The cold weather we are having has me thinking of comforting and easy to make soup as an option for lunch or dinner. When my son was preschool aged, he refused to eat any veggies unless they were in soup, in which case he would happily eat a wide variety of them! Since I wanted him to have a balanced diet, we had soup pretty regularly during that phase of our family life.
That’s the back story to why I’ve got some time tested, kid approved soup recipes up my sleeve and I’m happy to share them with you. Here are three that are nutritious and pretty simple to put together. Feel free to swap out ingredients that you know will make my family’s recipes even more delicious for yours. Bon Appetite!
Turkey or Chicken Soup
Ingredients:
- Chicken bouillon
- Bag of kale or kale salad - take 1 or 2 generous handfuls
- Carrots - 1 regular carrot or a handful of baby carrots
- Onion - ¼ or ⅓ of a white or yellow onion
- Cooked turkey or chicken - approximately 2 cups
- Can of diced tomatoes
- 1 cup dry quinoa
- Herbs de Provence - 2 teaspoons
Directions:
- Cook the quinoa according to the package instructions in a pot.
- While the quinoa cooks, cut the onions and carrots and put them into a medium sized pot. Keep track of how much water you add as you cover them with water and get them simmering over medium heat.
- Roughly chop the kale, add that to the veggies and keep that cooking and softening.
- Chop or shred the turkey/chicken, adding this to the veggies too. Keep track of how much you add as you cover the mixture again with water so everything is submerged.
- Add the bouillon according to how much water you put in, in total. If you forgot to keep track, you have probably added approximately 4 cups of water. The bouillon package should say how much to use for each cup of water so your both comes out flavorful, not salty.
- Pour in the can of tomatoes, with their juice, and add the Herbs de Provence.
- Heat to the desired temperature, check that the carrots and kale are tender, see if you want pepper, salt or more liquid to the soup.
- To serve, put the quinoa in the bowl and then add the soup.
- If you have leftovers, keep the quinoa separate from the soup so it does not get soggy tasting. Extra quinoa can also be added to a salad the next day!
Stir Fry Soup
Ingredients:
- Soy Sauce (or Bragg Liquid Aminos)
- Bouillon (chicken or beef, depending on which meat you add)
- 1 cup Napa cabbage
- 2 cups frozen stir fry veggies
- 1 ½ cups chicken or beef
- Rice, egg noodles or Ramen noodles
Directions:
- Prepare the rice, egg noodles or Ramen noodles in a pot as instructed on the packaging.
- Slice the chicken or beef into thinish strips and quickly cook in a pan or a George Foreman Grill. Set aside to cool a touch.
- Fill a medium sized pot with 4 cups of water and the corresponding amount of bouillon, set to medium high heat.
- Thinly slice the Napa cabbage and add it to the broth
- Add the frozen stir fry veggies to the broth
- Now that the meat has cooled a touch, cut that into bite sized pieces and add that to the broth.
- Add ⅓ cup soy sauce (or Bragg Liquid Aminos) and taste the soup. Add more soy sauce until you get the flavor as you would like it. You can also add pepper.
- Once everything is softened and heated through, you are ready to serve!
- Put the rice or noodles into the bowl and then ladle the soup over it.
- You can get fancy by adding sesame seeds (toasted if you really want to go for it!) or thinly sliced green onions. But that would be more for the adults eating, not the kids.
- If you have leftovers, keep the rice or noodles stored separately so they don’t get gummy sitting in the broth for too long.
Ben’s Tortilla Soup
This one does not come together quite as quickly as the first two but it IS tasty and worth a little extra time and effort.
Soup Ingredients:
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 1 zucchini chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 4 cups of vegetable or chicken broth
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 1 pasilla pepper with the seeds removed (This is a pretty mild pepper, especially once cooked and de-seeded but you can substitute in a bell pepper if you prefer.)
- 2 cups cooked chicken (cut or shredded)
Garnishes:
- 1 ripe avocado (or some guac would work too)
- ½ - ⅓ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or mild cheddar)
- Chopped fresh cilantro - a handful
- 1 lime or lemon
- Tortilla chips - enough to put into the soup plus have as a garnish so about ½ a bag.
Directions:
- Prep all the main soup ingredients so they are washed, measured, chopped… and ready to go.
- Heat a medium sized pot to medium high, add 1 tablespoon of oil and saute the onions and zucchini for 2 minutes stirring to keep them from burning.
- Add the pasilla pepper, cooking for 2 minutes and stirring again to make sure nothing burns.
- Add the minced garlic and give that a stir for 30 seconds. Garlic burns easily so have that can of diced tomatoes opened and ready!
- Making sure that the oil does not splatter, add the can of tomatoes, juice and all, the broth, and ½ teaspoon of salt. Stir to combine then increase the temp to high.
- Once the soup has come to a boil, lower the heat so that it will just simmer, cover it and set the timer for 15 minutes. During this time you can give the soup a stir a couple of times to make sure the temp is not too high or low.
- Prep the garnishes by 1) slicing the avocado, 2) chopping the cilantro, 3) cutting the lime/lemon into wedges, and 4) crumbling the tortilla chips a little so they are in smallish pieces but not crumbs. If you have block cheese, shred the cheese too.
- Time to Serve: Put a handful of chips in the bottom of the bowl. Make sure the soup does not need last minute taste adjustments of salt or pepper and then ladle the soup over the chips. Top with the shredded cheese, avocado, cilantro, more chips and a squeeze of the lime/lemon.
I hope your family enjoys these soups as much as mine did. To finish the story, my son, now a college student, does eat veggies (even when they are not in soup). Figuring out a way to accommodate his young palette paid off!
