When I first decided to get really serious about watching my carbs I gave up soup altogether. That was then, this is now. Today, I enjoy many different soups, but mostly of my own creation (actually, my wife’s, with a little input from me). Soup can be problematic for carb-watchers. One of the reasons for this is that soup cannot simply taste like vegetables dropped into a pot of water. For soup to be soup it has to have some sort of thickening agent. Traditionally this has been white flour, which jacks up the carb count. On top of that, many soups contain noodles, which increases the carbs further still. Others contain rice, which does the same. Many canned soups have added significant amounts of sugar to jazz them up.
Another factor is that almost nobody can eat soup by itself for a meal. The traditional companion to a bowl of soup is a sandwich, which means two slices of bread to add to the carb count. Remember the old Campbell’s Soup commercial, “Soup and sandwich…go together”? (You have to be ancient to remember this—but strangely I do!) Some people add insult to injury by breaking up soda crackers (about as pure a carb source as you’ll find) and putting them in their soup.
Besides the carbs, most soups contain way too much sodium, which won’t directly affect your blood sugar, but will drive your blood pressure up. All in all, much of the canned soup you find at the store is junk. You can make a lot better choices.
If you look at many of the soups on your grocery store shelves you’ll find that the carb counts don’t seem too bad. Some say 14 grams, some are as low as 10. But check out the serving size. Nearly all list serving sizes that wouldn’t satisfy a scrawny church mouse. If you have any kind of appetite at all, you can pretty much figure on doubling the carb count that they give.
This doesn’t mean you have to give up on soup—not at all. There are two choices in the soup department for carb-watchers. First, you can check out some of the soups specifically touted as being healthy. Check the nutrition information to see if their idea of “healthy” means reduced sodium only, or also reduced carbs. But remember that with nearly all store-bought soups, you’ll have to be very moderate in your portion size.
Another choice is simply to make your own soup. Here is your chance to eat a large bowl of soup and still do very little to your blood sugar. It’s not at all likely that anyone will put a gun to your head and force you to add noodles or rice, or use white flour to thicken it. To my mind homemade is by far the best choice. One simple way to do this is go on the Internet and type these words into your favorite search engine: “low-carb soup recipes.” You’ll soon have enough recipes to last you for a dozen lifetimes.
Some of the basic rules in making your own soup are these:
1. Never use flour as a thickening agent. Instead, experiment with some of these:
• Add heavy whipped cream for an interesting and tasty thickener.
• Remove some of the vegetables from the soup and puree them in the blender. Then add them back to the soup. Voilà!—your soup has gone from watery to thick.
• One simple way to make soup thicker is simply to cook it longer. Over time two things happen: the vegetables in the soup break down more and mix with the water, and you lose more water through evaporation, making the soup thicker.
• Try adding a small amount of olive oil or vegetable oil to give the soup a richer and thicker taste.
• Beans in bean soups break down enough to make their own thickening agent. The longer the beans are cooked or boiled, the more the content of the beans ends up in the soup.
• Spaghetti sauce can be used sometimes, but don’t feel obligated to empty the entire can into the soup. Use just enough to get the right consistency. Check the labels and make sure to use one that is on the low side in carbs—some spaghetti sauces have a significant amount of added sugar.
2. No rice or noodles in the soup.
3. No corn or potatoes in the soup.
With a little research and experimentation you can quickly come up with some great low-carb soup recipes. For people who don’t like to cook, remember this. Although making soup seems like a significant time expenditure, if you make a fairly big pot of it, you can save it and have soup for the next week or more. You can even freeze some of it and bring it out a month later. What this means is that you have a very quick and easy lunch for quite a few days, so in the end you save time.
As we said elsewhere, soup practically begs for something else to be eaten along with it. Almost nobody would want a meal of soup alone. Salads work fine here, as do low-carb breads and muffins. An avocado is filling and adds few carbs to the mix. A piece of celery filled with peanut butter will do the job nicely. I sometimes have a low-carb tortilla with my soup. (No, I don’t try to pour the soup in the tortilla—I roll it up and eat it like a piece of bread between sips of soup.)
Since most of the vegetables in soup end up surrendering their unique flavor and blending with the whole, vegetable soup is a great way to get some of those veggies that you don’t especially like on their own. Chop up some spinach and okra and throw them in the soup. My wife introduced me to okra soup and to my amazement I loved it! And after I eat a big bowl of it, my blood sugar hardly budges.
Another soup I highly recommend is lentil soup. Lentils have a lot of fiber, more than most beans, and are a great choice for people wanting to keep their post-meal blood sugar at a reasonable level. A large bowl may end up giving you too many carbs, but a small- to medium-sized bowl will be no problem to most type 2’s, provided you don’t eat some other significant source of carbs.
When it comes to soup, the diabetic must learn to think outside the box. There are endless possibilities that will be blood-sugar-friendly if you take a little time to experiment and research.
Benedicta’s Okra and Spinach Soup
My wife grew up in Africa, and this is pretty much a typical African soup, with a few American adaptations. Even if you are not a big okra fan, you will probably like this. In Africa she used palm oil, but since that is not plentiful in America, you can substitute olive oil. Use a large pot for this; it will make enough for a good-sized family with some to spare. For a smaller amount cut the ingredients in half.
Benedicta with her okra soup
Ingredients:
3 pieces of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 small to medium onion
1/2 can (12 ounces) of spaghetti sauce (cans are often found in 24- to 26-ounce sizes)
28-ounce bag of frozen okra
10-ounce bag of spinach (Walmart sells spinach in a 10-ounce bag; if you buy in a bunch, 2 bunches should be about right)
6 ounces olive oil
1 chicken bouillon cube
1-1/2 cups water
Instructions:
1. Fry or bake the three chicken breasts and then cut in small pieces to be added to the soup later.
2. Chop up the spinach into small pieces to be added to the soup later.
3. Place the frozen okra in a food processor (do it in 2 or more batches) and chop it up fairly fine. This will be added to the soup later.
4. Chop up the 1/2 onion into small pieces.
5. Place the onion pieces in a pan with the olive oil and heat to a boil.
6. Keep the oil at a low boil for four to five minutes to soften the onion.
7. Mix 1/2 a standard can of Hunt’s pasta sauce or about 12 oz. of any lower-carb spaghetti sauce in with the oil and onions, and cook at a medium to medium-high heat for four minutes.
8. Raise the heat back a little below high, add in the chopped okra, the chicken pieces, and one chicken bouillon cube, and mix thoroughly while continuing to cook for another 8 minutes.
9. Add the chopped spinach and the water, mixing well, and cook for another five minutes. Keep the heat a little below high. Stir well so that the spinach mixes completely into the soup.
This soup has no major source of carbs, it is jam-packed with nutritious okra and spinach, and because these vegetables are not cooked very long, they retain most of their vitamins. It is very easy on your blood sugar. On top of that, it tastes terrific! Africans eat it in a thicker version than this. To thicken it, use less water, or if you desire it thinner, increase the amount of water added. If the soup is a bit bland for you, you can add some garlic as needed to give it a little more pizzazz.