If you are slimming, or trying to keep your weight down, soups can form a useful part of your diet, as they can be both sustaining and filling. To make them suitable for a well-balanced slimming diet:
• Have smaller portions. Most recipes in this book make 4 to 6 servings, so allow yourself one-sixth of the total amount, unless serving the soups as a main dish.
• Where 50 g/2 oz (½ cup) of fat is specified in the recipe, reduce to 25 g/1 oz (2 tablespoons). This is quite feasible, particularly if cooking the soup in a microwave or non-stick pan.
• Use semi-skimmed milk where full-cream milk is specified.
• Substitute fromage frais or low-fat yoghurt for cream or full-fat yoghurt in the recipes. Remember that all these ingredients must be heated carefully and not allowed to boil or the soup will curdle.
The following are the best soups for slimmers: