Probably because you don’t want to stay hungry while on the quest of losing weight that is why you need soups recipes for weight loss. From spicy lentil stews to green detox tinctures, these easy weight loss soups will allow you to eat whatever you want, whenever you want and still shed some pounds.
Soups Recipes For Weight Loss
we won’t waste much of your time, let’s go straight to the soups recipes:
- Instant Pot Lentil Soup
- Slow-Cooker Moroccan Soup
- Turmeric Tomato Soup
- Chicken Detox Soup
- Vegetarian Collard Greens Soup
1. Instant Pot Lentil Soup:
How do I make soup in my Instant Pot?
Instant Pots are amazing for soup. You simply add ingredients, set your Instant Pot to high, and press go! Soups are done in less than 20 minutes.
Will the flavors taste the same?
Yes—but any time you make soup if you first sauté your aromatics (onion, celery, garlic, etc) before adding your broth and other ingredients, it helps build flavor. The whole point of the Instant Pot is, well, that the soup is done in an instant, so we skip flavor building here 🙂
What goes into lentil soup?
We love lentil soup for its versatility. We add onion, carrot, celery, and garlic as a base, plus canned tomatoes and fresh thyme. Lentil soup of course also needs lentils. The 18-minute wait is the time the lentils take to cook.
Can I make vegetarian lentil soup?
Of course. Swap in vegetable broth for the chicken broth.
Do other greens besides spinach work?
Absolutely. Once the lentils are tender, remove the lid of the Instant Pot and stir in whatever leafy greens you like—kale, Swiss chard, arugula, even mustard greens (our favorite for their spicy taste) and stir until wilted.
INGREDIENTS
Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving
DIRECTIONS
- To an Instant Pot, add onion, carrot, celery, garlic, lentils, and tomatoes. Add thyme and Italian seasoning and season with salt and pepper. Pour broth over and stir to combine. Set Instant Pot to Manual, High and set for 18 minutes. Once finished, set the valve to quick release.
- Remove lid and stir in spinach. Serve with Parmesan. 1
2. Slow-Cooker Moroccan Soup:
This soup is made in the slow cooker and requires hardly any work at all. Plus, it makes the whole house smell warm and cozy!
It about that time again!
SOUP TIME. Which, in my very humble opinion is the best kind of time there is. Unless it’s chocolate chip cookie time, which, goes without saying, is obviously better. And which obviously this is NOT. Ahem, what? Where were we? Detoxing. That’s right. Bringing you this Moroccan-style detox lentil soup loaded with all the goodness straight from your refrigerator plus pantry with tons of soul-warming spices to brighten up these cold, cold winter days.
Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.
So January. We’re already half a week into 2017 guys. How? But also – I don’t know if it’s just me – but is anyone else just now officially starting the detox from all the holiday eats and treats? Anees’ birthday is the day after New Years Day so we tend to get a slow start with the whole of January to cleanse thing.
But with all of the birthdays and parties finally out of the way, I’m just itching to get another pot of this warm lentil soup on and am ready to hit the clean-eating reset button now.
Of course, lentil soup isn’t just limited to those of us that are desperate for a reset either. In fact, it’s even more delicious if you decide to serve it with pan-fried pita wedges and a healthy dollop of whipped greek yoghurt or sour cream to just mellow out all those glorious spices.
I kept this lentil soup completely vegan/vegetarian-friendly so everyone can enjoy this. Know that it’s easy to make this a more protein-packed meal though. Just sauté ground turkey, chicken, beef or lamb or any other kind of ground protein you like and add it straight into the crockpot with all the other ingredients. You’ve instantly got the perfect bagged lunch for the week. This lentil soup would also work well over a mound of fragrant basmati rice in case you like the whole Indian ‘daal’ scene. Lentil-anything was made to be paired with rice.
One of the best things about having a blog is getting to name all the recipes. I say that now. If you rewind back to a few years ago, you’d see this definitely was not the case. I realize it’s important to be clear and precise when naming a recipe. With that said, this is a detox lentil soup recipe that comes loaded with all those wonderful cleansing ingredients that are like a toothbrush for our insides. And, yeah that’s totally weird, but go with it, will ya?
Added bonus: under 250 calories per serving.
It all starts with the trinity – onions, carrots, celery. Then, of course, tons of pressed garlic, which is a completely normal thing around here and it totally caught me by surprise that garlic has all these detoxing properties which NO BIG DEAL – but only it is. It’s HUGE. Love these kinds of happy coincidences. But, HOLD THE PHONE there’s more, turmeric, cumin, and cinnamon. We all know about that turmeric trend of 2016 right? Let’s carry all the good things into ’17 with us now. Loaded with anti-inflammatory properties and perfect for when you’re a little under-the-weather to boost your immune system.
Now here’s how simple this lentil soup recipe is. Grab all your ingredients, add them to a slow cooker and let them hang out of low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-6 hours. One the lentils have softened all the way through, puree ½ of the soup in your blender and pop it back into the slow cooker along with tons of chopped baby spinach and just let it wilt. Pro tip: make this one day ahead for even more flavor. So pop it into the slow cooker when you get home from work tonight and into the fridge before you head to bed. Puree it when you get home from work tomorrow, add the spinach and just heat it through. Squeeze ¼ cup of lemon juice right into the slow cooker or serve lemon wedges on the side. It’s seriously the perfect spicy, tangy, veggie soup ever.
The hardest part about the whole thing is that it requires a bit of prepping, but if you buy store-bought mirepoix mix (ze onions, carrots, and ze celery) then all that really requires your attention is the sweet potatoes. And let me just say when it comes to customizing this lentil soup, you can easily swap the sweet potatoes for pre-diced butternut squash chunks and swap the brown lentils for greens or even use chickpeas along with all the other good stuff in this soup.
But here’s the thing – even with all it’s simplicity, it’s a warm, FEEL GOOD food. Kinda perfect for those of us that have decided to pack more lunches this year and make smarter choices.
It’s quick to throw together, completely straightforward, and easily adaptable to your dietary preferences.
It’s gotta go with you to lunch this week!
WINTER DETOX MOROCCAN SWEET POTATO LENTIL SOUP (SLOW COOKER)
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed into small pieces
- 1 cup carrots, chopped
- 1 cup onions, chopped
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
- 1 ½ cups green or brown lentils, rinsed and picked over
- 1 ½ teaspoon EACH coriander AND cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon curry powder (or more to taste)
- ½ teaspoon EACH smoked paprika, ground cinnamon, AND turmeric
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 6-7 cups low sodium broth (vegetable or chicken)
- 2 ½ cups baby spinach, roughly chopped
- ¼ cup lemon juice or lemon wedges for serving
DIRECTIONS:
- Place the sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, red bell pepper, garlic, lentils, spices, and 6 cups of broth into a slow cooker. Cover and cook on the low setting for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-6 hours. Check the lentils for doneness. If your lentils have been in the pantry for a while, note that they’ll take a bit longer to cook through.
- Place half the soup into a blender along with a little additional broth (½ cup or so) and blend till smoothish. Alternately, you can use an immersion blender directly in the slow cooker but be sure to not blend all of the soup if you want it to have a chunkier texture. Add the puree back into the slow cooker. Stir in the baby spinach and lemon juice. Cover the slow cooker, unplug it, and allow the ingredients to just hang out for 30 minutes or so until the spinach wilts down.
- Season with salt, pepper and curry powder to taste as desired. Thin with additional broth to desired consistency. Serve warm with whipped greek yoghurt, fried pita bread, and tons of fresh herbs (parsley or cilantro) on top!
NOTES:
*MORE PROTEIN* You can sauté 1 pound of ground lamb, beef, chicken, or turkey and add it in with all the other ingredients to the slow cooker for a more protein-filled meal – note that you may need a little bit more of each of the seasonings to balance flavors when adding protein. 2
3. Turmeric Tomato Soup:
I am a big fan of the Mediterranean ingredients (olive oil, tomatoes, chickpeas), but I love to combine healthy ingredients from different gastronomies to obtain new ways of nourishing my body and help it with its natural detox function. This time I played with Indian and Mediterranean flavors and I obtained a comforting soup, loaded with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients.
Tomatoes are among my favorite vegetables I use them in salads or sandwiches, I roast them but very often I add them in soups. They flavor always reminds me of my beautiful Italian holidays, and when you eat something with pleasure, your body will feel energized. I usually combine them with aromatic herbs like oregano or basil, but this time I decided to go a little bit further and pair them with powerful oriental superfood turmeric. Turmeric is the root of the plant called Curcuma, and has a warm, peppery flavor, with mild fragrances of orange and ginger, and intense yellow-orange color. You can use the whole root or the powder obtained from grinding it , either way, you will benefit from amazing its anti-inflammatory action, which made it the favorite ingredient in Indian and Chinese traditional medicine.
Curcumin, the yellow-orange pigment, is also the compound of turmeric which has the anti-inflammatory action. The action of curcumin on body health is vast, mostly related to stimulating the liver detox function, and these are only some of the benefits of this miraculous ingredient:
– It has anti-inflammatory effects comparable to drugs like hydrocortizone, but without its negative side effects.
– Contributes to the digestive system health and acts as a treatment for Chron disease, ulcerative colitis and other IBD diseases (inflammatory bowel disease).
– Is a good ally during the fight against cystic fibrosis.
– Its antioxidant action makes it an alternative medicine for curing and preventing cancer, inhibiting the growth of cancer cells by stimulating the detox function of the liver. Curcumin effects are specially applied for preventing and curing colon cancer (especially when paired with onions) and prostate cancer (paired with cauliflower).
Tomatoes are an exceptional source of a powerful antioxidant called lycopene, another ally in the fight against chronic diseases including cancer. Chronic diseases are mainly caused by oxidative stress and inflammation, so pairing the antioxidants in tomatoes with the magical anti-inflammatory action of turmeric has fantastic benefits for your body health. Curcumin is better absorbed by our bodies when paired with black pepper, so make sure you use this abundantly in your soup.
INGREDIENTS:
- 5 oz cherry tomatoes, rinsed and cut in halves
- 1 can diced tomatoes with their sauce
- ½ cup low-sodium vegetable stock
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Mixed seeds and nuts, to garnish
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Heat the coconut oil in a saucepan and fry the onion and garlic for one minute.
- Add turmeric and cherry tomatoes, and cook until the tomatoes soften and leave their juices.
- Add the tomato can, vegetable stock, apple cider vinegar and basil, bring to boil, cover with a lid and let simmer for five minutes.
- Transfer into the blender and pulse to obtain a creamy liquid.
- Season with salt and pepper and serve garnished with mixed seeds and nuts. 3
4. Chicken Detox Soup:
So what’s in MY Chicken Detox Soup?
- For protein, we have chicken breast and some chicken broth.
- The vegetables in this soup are onions, broccoli, carrots, celery, and peas.
- And for all the flavoring we have olive oil, apple cider vinegar, parsely, ginger, garlic, crushed red pepper, ground tumeric, salt and pepper.
If you see any vegetable in there that you don’t like, switch it out for something you do like.
How to Make Chicken Detox Soup
-
Set a large saucepot over medium heat. Add the olive oil, chopped onions, celery, ginger, and garlic. Saute to soften. Then add the raw chicken breasts, broth, carrots, apple cider vinegar, crushed red pepper, turmeric and sea salt.
-
Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, until the chicken breasts are cooked through. Then remove the chicken with tongs and set them on a cutting board to cool.
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Add the broccoli, peas, and parsley to the pot. Continue to simmer to soften the broccoli. Meanwhile, shred the chicken breasts with two forks, and stir it back into the soup.
-
Once the broccoli is tender, taste, then salt and pepper as needed. Serve warm. 4
5. Vegetarian Collard Greens Soup:
Want to be a lean, mean sex machine? At 97 calories per satisfying cup, this vegetarian collard greens soup is a weight-management must-have. Plus collard greens make you sexy!
Seriously. This soup is everything!
Filling. Craveable. Low calorie. Easy to make. Packed with fiber, protein and vitamins. And the star ingredient, collard greens, can actually improve your orgasms.
You guys know I always hook you up with the good stuff.
I’ve been on a mission to feel fierce lately. So I decided to amp up my workouts, not eat half a jar of peanut butter every day and lose a few pounds.
And I decided to come up with a filling, nourishing, satisfying soup that’s full of good stuff and not calories, so I can have a ton of it if I want to.
Because of eating. I love it.
The plan was to use kale in my super fierce soup, but when I got to the store…no kale! NO KALE!!!
Cue the saddest face that’s ever happened in a produce aisle.
But they did have a super giant bag of collard greens. Collard greens??? Really? But I’ve never tried collard greens before, and new things scare me.
But I did want something leafy and green in my fierce soup?
Hells yes. So I took them home and made sweet sweet soup. Three times. And I learned something:
Collard greens make the best soup ever.
I had no idea collard greens are delicious. They’re hearty, have a nice tender texture and a rich but mild flavor. Perfect for my fierceness soup!
I added some awesome fat-busting ingredients like lentils, quinoa and fresh carrots to give my vegetarian collard greens soup some extra rocket fuel. Rocket fuel, in this case, being fiber, protein and nutrients. And the quinoa and lentils, in particular, are massively filling.
And I brought it in, full of flavor and rocket fuel, at 97 calories a cup. Yer!
And as if that wasn’t enough…turns out collard greens make you sexy. And of course, I Googled “do collard greens make you sexy.” Who doesn’t do that every day?
Collard greens make you sexy in two ways. Three, if you could the sexy moans you’ll be making as you ravish this soup.
One is they’re full of antioxidants like calcium, folic acid and magnesium. And those antioxidants are great at getting rid of libido-reducing contaminants in our systems.
So if you need another reason to love antioxidants, high five!
The other is more direct. Greens like kale, spinach, chard and our friend collard greens here boost histamine production, and apparently that’s a thing when it comes to climax.
Histamines = better orgasms. And collard greens boost histamine production. So using that logic…carry the two…
Collard greens = better orgasms.
A sentence that, until this moment, I have not said nearly enough.
Did my should-be-patented vegetarian collard greens soup help me lose weight? Heck. Yes.
And I scarfed it with such near orgasmic delight that I had to make three batches in the space of two weeks.
YIELDS 14 CUPS
This vegetarian collard greens soup will keep you full, satisfied and feeling great. Awesome for losing weight!
10 min Prep Time
1 hr Cook Time
1 hr, 10Total Time
Ingredients:
-
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- pinch red pepper flakes
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 large carrots, sliced
- 3 stalks celery, chopped
- 10 cups water
- 15 oz. can no-salt-added diced tomatoes
- 6 oz. can no-salt-added tomato paste
- 2 Tbs lower sodium tamari or soy sauce
- 2 Tbs lemon juice
- 1 Tbs salt-free herb seasoning (I like Mrs. Dash)
- 1 Tbs sugar/sweetener, your choice (see recipe notes)
- 1 tsp roasted garlic granules or garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- fresh black pepper to taste
- 1 cup dried lentils
- 6 cups packed collard greens, stems removed
- 1/4 cup uncooked quinoa
Instructions:
- Prep the veggies and greens.
- Add the oil to a large, lidded cooking pot.
- Add the paprika, chili powder, cumin and red pepper flakes.
- Raise the heat to medium.
- Add the onion, carrots and celery. Saute about 10 minutes.
- Add the water, tomatoes, paste, tamari or soy sauce, lemon juice, herb seasoning, sweetener, garlic granules, salt, pepper and lentils. Stir to combine.
- Stir in the collard greens.
- Raise the heat to medium-high. Bring to a boil.
- Cover and turn the heat down to a simmer.
- Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in the quinoa.
- Simmer another 15-20 minutes.
RECIPE NOTES:
Sweetener
The tablespoon of sweetener brings the best flavor out of the tomato paste and diced tomatoes. Anything sweet will work. I usually use maple syrup or coconut palm sugar because they have some flavor, and I’ve also used agave and regular sugar (white and brown). I’ve used no-calorie sweeteners in similar recipes, so they’re another option. 5
[…] You could use a bit of weight loss/healthy diets such as these salads for weight loss or the soups recipes for weight loss which I wrote about in my previous article. Now, according to “Eat This, Not That“, […]
[…] You could use a bit of weight loss/healthy diets such as these salads for weight loss or the soups recipes for weight loss which I wrote about in my previous article. Now, according to “Eat This, Not That“, […]