I once had a friend who refused to eat soup. It didn?t matter what type it was or what it was served in. It didn?t matter whether he ate it from paper soup cups, with or without lids. It did not matter if it was cold or hot: he hated it. Finally, I found out that why he felt so strongly about it. He had come from a big family, and to make food stretch, his mother would craft what my friend called ?concentration camp? soup. It had little flavor and almost nothing in it but water. As a growing boy doing farm work, his mother?s recipe was not enough to sustain him. But that is not the way soup needs to be. In fact, here are five ways my friend is all wrong about soup:
It Can Be Amazingly Good for You
It?s not just a comfort food to drink during the winter; although it is good for those cold days! Hot soup can increase the body?s core temperature, which is a great side effect in the winter. It?s also going to fill you up and hydrate you in a healthy way because it?s providing nutrients. When you?ve been nourished, not just filled, you are less likely to keep eating stuff you don?t need. And while other ways of cooking vegetables result in all the vitamins and minerals being lost when you throw out the cooking water, that never happens with soup.
Soup is Easy to Make
It?s wonderfully forgiving. It doesn?t matter if you serve it in a paper cup or a steaming bowl: you have to be really determined if you want to mess up soup. It?s one of the few meals you can truly toss together and then just forget.
Soup Freezes Nicely
If you?re cooking for a family, this is a great trick. Make a really big batch, then freeze the soup and serve it when ready. If you need to transport soup to an event, just make it ahead of time and freeze the whole batch. It?ll super simple and mess free in transport, and can easily be re-heated at the host?s place.
Soup is a Great Way to Get Kids to Eat Vegetables
A lot of parents struggle with this issue, so you might be really psyched to know that if small children are fed vegetable-rich soup from an early age, they tended to like more vegetables later in life, compared to kids who didn?t eat the soup. Now you know.
This is One Time It?s Good to Follow the Crowd
People in the United States are eating more than 10 million bowls of soup every year. They?re eating so much soup that more than 32% of delis are currently planning to enhance their soup stations in order to meet demand. Right now, men are half as likely to order a lunch of soup as women, but that?s been slowly changing.
Soup, when made right, is filling, aromatic, easy to make, full of nutrients, and particularly satisfying on those cold winter days. There are recipes all over the internet, and an endless variety of cups and containers to serve, freeze, and enjoy it in. Find your hot soup containers, get yourself a recipe, and enjoy all the benefits of amazing soup.