Meatless soup is a lunch option not only for convinced vegetarians, but also for adherents of traditional cuisine. This first course is a healthy and tasty meal, the basis of a healthy diet. We have collected the 5 best recipes for vegetable soups with photos and found 7 reasons why you should cook and eat them.
Okroshka without meat
Historically, Okroshka was a peasant stew that was prepared from leftover food. However, in the 18th century. They began to eat it in secular society as well.
It’s not difficult to prepare borscht according to a step-by-step recipe:
Gazpacho
Gazpacho is a favorite cold Spanish soup. It consists of crushed cold tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions and olive oil. This soup is always served chilled, so it has saved the inhabitants of Spain from the heat for many centuries.
In recent years, gazpacho has become a frequent guest in Russian kitchens: it is simple and inexpensive to prepare, does not require much time and is prepared without fatty broths.
Beetroot
Beetroot soup is another cold summer soup from the collection of recipes from Russian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian cuisines. Unlike Okroshka, it is always prepared without meat ingredients and, in addition to beets, consists of cucumber, onion, dill, potatoes, eggs and seasoned with kefir or kvass.
Low calorie content
Vegetable soup is easy to digest and contains essential fiber. The calorie content of the dish depends on the composition, but on average this soup contains approximately 45-55 calories per 100 grams, which is perfect for fasting days or meals during a diet.
Be careful with creamed soups: they are high in calories because they contain added potatoes, grains, cheese, butter and heavy cream. Pea, mushroom, and cheese soups are the most unhealthy for your figure, but carrot or pumpkin soups are quite suitable for your diet.
Interesting taste
Traditionally, broths are prepared with pork, beef or chicken. Vegetable soup is often mistakenly perceived as dietary, and therefore not very filling and tasty food. However, this is not so: although light soups differ from their fatty counterparts, they delight with wonderful combinations and unusual flavors thanks to the fresh vegetables in their composition.
Experienced housewives advise improving the taste of the soup and adding tomato, carrot or cabbage juice before serving. Greens will also help enrich the dish: green onions, black or red pepper, parsley and dill combine with all the ingredients and add spice.
Variety of recipes
A lot of classic hearty and healthy dishes include only vegetables. Vegetarian can be a variation of a classic recipe, for example, borscht or cabbage soup. But there are also soups that are traditionally prepared without animal fats. First of all.
these are light summer gazpachos, cold drinks, beetroot soups and cheese soups. You can also add fish dishes consisting of seafood, sea or river fish and similar ingredients. For example, the classic Russian ukha is an excellent option for a hearty, but not meat-based dish.
Medical indications
Quitting meat products is often a forced measure and a doctor’s order. Treatment for some diseases, such as those associated with inflammation of the joints, requires limiting protein foods of animal origin. In this case, soup without the addition of pork, beef or even chicken is the first aid for illness and the path to healthy well-being.
Lenten diet
If you refuse fast food for religious reasons, vegetable soup is an excellent help during the fasting period. Many recipes allow you to diversify your diet even on the most strict days of fasting. This diet allows you to prepare soup not only from vegetable ingredients, but also with the addition of mushrooms and fish.
Quick and easy preparation
Meatless soup is a simple and quick lunch option. The ingredients do not require such long cooking, and the dishes are easy to prepare. For the simplest option, just peel the potatoes, cut them into small pieces, fry the carrots and onions in a frying pan, add them to the potatoes and cook for 10-15 minutes, adding salt and other seasonings to taste.
Cheapness of the finished product
Vegetables are always inexpensive compared to meat assortment, and buying seasonal products allows you to save two or three times. If you have a summer house, you don’t even need to go to the store to cook soup: everything you need is in the garden.
This soup does not require strict rules; recipes allow you to combine foods in different ways; the ingredients can be combined with each other: for example, carrots with onions, onions with pumpkin, pumpkin with zucchini, and zucchini with peppers and eggplants.
Ingredients for vegetable soups
You can add various products to the soup. Most often, the broth recipe contains onions, potatoes, carrots, peppers, pumpkin, asparagus, tomatoes, green peas, spinach; cereals and butter are added for satiety, especially when it comes to thick pureed soups;
You can cook both fresh root vegetables and frozen ones. Carrot slices, green peas, and sliced peppers tolerate freezing well, but it is better not to put onions in the freezer: there their beneficial qualities are nullified;
