Soul-satisfying soup, especially homemade, is a salve for a wintery day. These winter soup recipes emphasize healthful low-carb eating but don’t entirely skip the starchy vegetables or the beans.
In diet, as in life, the goal is to aim for balance. This list includes quick-fix weeknight soups that come together in a snap and some special stews that require a bit more attention. Even if you’re not following a keto or low-carb diet, eschewing carbs a few meals every week is an upgrade we can all afford. Eating fewer carbs may reduce your risk of heart disease, not to mention type 2 diabetes.
According to the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a daily limit of 130 grams of carbs on a 2,000-calorie diet is considered low-carb. A keto diet significantly reduces carbs to a maximum of 50 grams a day. All of these soups fall under 50 grams per serving and are the perfect way to showcase proteins and nonstarchy vegetables. Not only will you feel better, but there’s another bonus: they taste fantastic.
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1. Slow Cooker Creamy Taco Soup
Courtesy of Beautiful Eats and Things
This spicy soup is low in carbs while being exciting and filling, thanks to the addition of ground beef and black beans. For low-carb eaters, beans get a bad rap, but certain types are lower in calories and carbs than others, and vitamin-rich black beans fall into that category. This recipe calls for just one 15-ounce can, along with another convenience food trick, canned tomatoes and chiles, a shortcut secret in Tex-Mex cooking.
Try the recipe at Beautiful Eats and Things.
2. Roasted Tomato Soup
Courtesy of Detoxinista
Whenever a recipe calls for cooked tomatoes, the first thing you should do is peel garlic because you know there will be lots of it. This recipe calls for a whopping 12 cloves. When roasted, garlic’s pungency softens to a sweet, buttery consistency that beautifully complements tomatoes. Additionally, the roasting method makes garlic much easier to digest, so you’ll get more of its immunity-boosting goodness during the winter flu season.
Try the recipe at Detoxinista.
3. Keto Chicken Soup
Courtesy of The Big Man’s World
This chicken soup tastes like it took hours to make but comes together in 45 minutes. Simmering cauliflower rice with chicken is a great trick for giving a brothy soup like this one richness and body. Those little bay leaves have powerful health benefits and add a depth of flavor that takes this soup over the top; just make sure to pluck them out before serving.
Try the recipe as The Big Man’s World.
4. Homemade Miso Soup
Courtesy of Just One Cookbook
With only 5 grams of carbs per serving, miso soup is an extremely low-carb meal and a joy to sip on a cold day. Miso is a fermented paste made from soybeans, sea salt, and koji and is an excellent source of flu-fighting vitamins B and E. You can find it in the Asian food sections of most supermarkets. To bulk up the recipe, feel free to play around by adding daikon radishes, cabbage, onions, and shiitake or enoki mushrooms.
Try the recipe at Just One Cookbook.
5. Crockpot Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Courtesy of Pinch of Yum
This gnocchi soup is pure comfort in a bowl — so great for sharing on a winter evening. The soup clocks in just over 38 grams of carbs per serving, making it one of the higher-carb options on this list, but you can still easily stay within the USDA target of 130 grams per day. Bacon in soup: need we say more? Mirepoix makes an appearance and deserves a shout-out too. The classic French mixture of diced onions, carrots, and celery is the building block of cozy winter food and an excellent way to sneak in vitamin-rich veggies.
Try the recipe at Pinch of Yum.
6. Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Courtesy of Smitten Kitchen
This broccoli cheddar soup is reminiscent of the popular versions at The Cheesecake Factory and Panera Bread but is healthier and a fraction of the price. Though carrots are not considered a low-carb vegetable, the recipe calls for just one large carrot, and you can halve the amount if you like or substitute two ribs of celery to maintain the soup’s deep vegetal flavor. Chicken broth and vegetable stock are equally delicious here —and you can alternate depending on what you have on hand.
Try the recipe at Smitten Kitchen.
7. The Best Healthy Turkey Chili
Courtesy of Ambitious Kitchen
Fortified with lean ground turkey and dark red kidney beans, this aromatic chili will stick to your ribs. It becomes deep russet with generous amounts of musky chili powder, cumin, and cayenne, but you can cut back on the spices according to your tastes. One of the lowest-carb beans is the dark red kidney bean. The dark red variety has a more robust flavor and higher nutritional value than standard red kidney beans and can be enjoyed in moderation on a low-carb diet.
Try the recipe at Ambitious Kitchen.
8. Beef Bourguignon
Courtesy of Well Plated
This is the type of hearty stew you could serve for dinner and enjoy the leftovers the next day, as it only gets better when the flavors have time to meld. Unlike typical beef stew, there are no potatoes or parsnips mixed in, but instead, lower-in-carb carrots and keto-friendly mushrooms. Serve this French classic with roasted Brussels sprouts or slices of low-carb bread.
Try the recipe at Well Plated.
9. Thai-Spiced Coconut Soup
Courtesy of Whole-istic Living
Traditional tom kha gai is a Thai chicken and coconut milk soup that is gluten and dairy free. This version uses meaty mushrooms in place of the chicken, but you can make it heartier by adding a pound of cubed chicken thigh meat to the broth when adding the mushrooms. Ginger and lemongrass add exhilarating flavor and are a powerful health duo: both have been shown to prevent chronic diseases and certain types of cancer.
Try the recipe at Whole-istic Living.
10. Cauliflower Soup with Roasted Garlic Oil
Photo Credit: Margot Foster
Vampires beware. This soup calls for eight cloves of garlic and a drizzle of garlic oil to boot. It might seem excessive, but roasted garlic adds a lovely sweetness to creamy cauliflower. An entire head of the cruciferous vegetable gets incorporated into this soup, and we can’t think of a more delicious way to enjoy its cancer-fighting properties. You can find roasted garlic oil at Whole Foods Market and many other supermarkets. Drizzle it on vegetables all through the winter.
Try the recipe at Clean Plates.
Read next: 6 Low-Carb Casseroles Perfect for Cozy Winter Meals
The post 10 Low-Carb Soup Recipes Perfect for Cozy Winter Meals appeared first on Clean Plates.