Soup Glorious Soup!
Soup is my big thing! I have always loved it and was making soup for my children as soon as I started weaning them onto solids. It is a great way to get kids eating vegetables and with my son’s food allergies, I am always on the lookout for easy and healthy allergy-friendly soup recipes for kids where I can include calcium-rich vegetables.
Soup is great if kids are going through the green veg fussy stage or for weaning. Start with simple ingredients and liquidise progressing to a more chunky soup as they get older. It is also a quick and easy meal to make, soup and a sandwich for lunch, can’t beat it!
I use a pressure cooker for soups. If you make a lot of soups, I would thoroughly recommend investing in one. It cuts down the cooking time and preserves the goodness in vegetables too! This is the one I have and it’s been on the go for 14 years now! It’s pricey but well worth the investment. This one also gets amazing reviews at half the price.
Here are some of our favourite ‘green’ soups
Calcium Packed Watercress Soup
Ingredients:
1 small onion finely chopped
25g dairy-free butter
250g potatoes, diced
600ml chicken stock
2 bags or bunches of watercress, chopped (use stems)
50ml oatly cream (or your allergy-friendly cream of choice)
A little milk if needed, I use Oatly
Preparation:
In a large pan, cook the onion in the butter until soft, not browned. Add the potato and stock, and cook until the potatoes are soft (approx. 15-20minutes). When potatoes are almost cooked, add the watercress. Cook for just a few minutes. Liquidise and add cream, use a little extra milk if the soup seems too thick. When I cook this in the pressure cooker, I just add all the ingredients at once and cook for 15 mins.
I also like to add a leak (add more stock as required).
So quick and easy!
Courgette Soup
Another quick and easy soup and a firm favourite in our household.
Ingredients
Olive oil
1 Onion
3 carrots
1 tblsp tomato puree
3 courgettes
500 – 750ml stock (I use Kalo ‘low salt’ vegetable cubes) – link
Preparation
In a pan, cook the onion in olive oil until soft, not browned. Add the remaining ingredients and cook. I use a pressure cooker and it takes about 15-20 minutes. Liquidise and voila, so easy! You can add some fresh dill and Oatly cream to jazz it up a bit.
Broccoli soup
This soup is so easy to prepare not to mention super healthy and tasty.
Ingredients:
1 large onion
A dash of olive oil
1 litre of vegetable stock
1 head of broccoli (300g chopped)
Dairy-free cheese to garnish
Preparation:
Cook the onion until soft then add the potato and stock. Simmer until the potato is tender. Add the broccoli and cook for 5 minutes. Make sure the broccoli is tender but still bright green then liquidise. Serve with cheese on top, you could also use a dairy-free cream like Oatly to make it creamier.
Carrot & orange soup
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion finely chopped
800 g carrots, peeled and chopped
500ml veg stock
100ml fresh orange juice
Preparation:
In a large pan, heat olive oil and cook the onion until transparent. Add carrots and cook over a low heat for a further 2 minutes. Add stock and orange juice, bring to the boil and season if required. Simmer for 10-15 mins until carrots tender then liquidise.
I use Tropicana calcium or the Tropicana orange and passion fruit gives a lovely taste. Kalo ‘very low salt’ stock cubes are ideal for children. You can also add 25g of fresh ginger in with the onion which gives the soup a lovely flavour and perfect for fighting off colds.
Would love to hear what you think of this soup as it is such a winner in our house!
Healthy Garnishes
I usually try and add some chopped up parsley or a dollop of dairy-free cream to soups just to try and add in as much goodness as possible. For more fun and healthy ideas on garnishes, check out these 21 tasty topping ideas from Eating Well. For more calcium-rich food sources check out this article.
