Quick, easy and nutritious soups make fantastic starters, or a lovely light lunch with some crusty bread. Soup making is a great skill to learn as there are so many variations to be explored.
Add a handful of spinach or lettuce just before blending the soup for an even greener soup!
Skills Check
Follow a recipe; follow food safety & hygiene rules; tidy away; use measuring spoons; use a jug to measure liquids; use weighing scales; snip herbs with scissors; chop using bridge/claw technique safely; use a hob | blender (with adult supervision); season to taste.
Equipment
Saucepan, wooden spoon, chopping board, knife, measuring spoons, kettle, measuring jug, hand blender, weighing scales, scissors.
Allergens
Gluten (stock cubes) | Celery | Milk
Please note the allergens listed above are indicative only. Allergens vary depending on brand; check the labels on the products you use.
Ingredients (serves 2 adults):
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 stick of celery, washed and sliced
- 1 medium potato, washed and cubed
- 400 ml vegetable stock
- 200 g peas, frozen or fresh
- Small handful of fresh mint leaves, washed and snipped
- 2 tbsp plain yogurt
- Black pepper, to taste
Method
- Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the chopped onion and cook over a medium heat, stirring often. Cook until the onion is soft (but not dark in colour as this will spoil the flavour of your soup).
- Stir in the sliced celery and cubed potatoes, and cook over a low heat for 3 minutes.
- Meanwhile make the vegetable stock by add the boiling water to the stock cube in a measuring jug and stirring well until the stock cube is dissolved.
- Add the stock to the pan and bring to the boil. Put the lid on the pan, turn down the heat and simmer for 15 minutes until the potato cubes are soft.
- Stir in the peas and chopped mint, turn up the heat and bring back to the boil. Simmer for 4 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and use the hand-held blender to blitz until almost smooth (or leave some chunks if you prefer!)
- Stir in plain yogurt (optional), season with black pepper and heat gently until piping hot.
- Use a ladle to serve into mugs or soup bowls.
So thinking about minty green soup ...
Peas are low in fat, sugar and calories but high in protein and soluble fibre (e.g. pectin). Soluble fibres are really good for keeping our heart and circulatory system healthy.
Potatoes are very nutritious and low in calories. If eaten with the skin on they are high in complex carbohydrates (giving us energy to run around!) and fibre. They are also a good source of vitamin C and B6, as well as a range of minerals.
Nutritional Information
- | Energy | 650kJ / 155kcal | 8% |
Low | Fat | 3.2g | 5% |
Low | Saturates | 0.5g | 2% |
Low | Sugars | 8.3g | 9% |
Low | Salt | 0.6g | 10% |
per 135g serving
% of an adult's reference intake
Typical values per 100g: Energy 176kJ / 42kcal
Notes
A traffic light system is used on nutrition labels to make it easier to see which foods and drinks are lower in calories, fat, sugar and salt. Try and choose more ‘greens’ and ‘ambers’ and fewer ‘reds’, and stick to smaller portions of ‘reds’.
Just because a recipe or a food has a red traffic light doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat it. Understanding why a food or recipe might have a red light can be helpful. For example oily fish is high in total fat and so any recipe containing oily fish is likely to be ‘red’ for fat. But it is recommended that we eat oily fish at least once a week because the type of fat it contains is beneficial for our health.
% Reference Intakes are also shown. Reference Intakes are guidelines about the approximate amount of particular nutrients and energy required for a healthy diet (based on an average-sized woman doing an average amount of physical activity). Most children will require less than these Reference Intakes. The contribution of one serving of a food or drink to the Reference Intake for each nutrient is expressed as a percentage.