Hearty vegetable soup with tomatoes and chicken

Posted on by gloriouslygoodfood

This is another one of my low-cal, low-carb, low-fat recipes for my pre-op diet before I have weight loss surgery next week. 

Hearty vegetable soup with tomatoes and chicken - gloriouslygoodfood.com

The recipe is one of those ‘chuck things in’ kind of recipes, so the vegetable quantities are approximate.  Play around with it and find what suits your palate in terms of actual vegetables used and ratio of one to another 🙂

Ingredients (for two hearty / filling portions containing virtually no fat and half the amount of protein I was advised to have in one day during my pre-op diet)

  • 1 chicken thigh (boneless, skinless, all visible fat removed), approx. 100g raw weight
  • 1l chicken stock (I make this with 2 Knorr chicken stock pots and 1l water, but you can make your own low-fat stock or buy other stock cubes / pots)
  • 2-3 baby carrots or one standard carrot, scraped, topped and tailed (cut into smaller chunks if using a standard size carrot)
  • 2-3 broccoli florets
  • Approximately 200g tinned chopped tomatoes
  • 2 very small potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 1 small courgette, cut into chunky slices

Method

Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil, then simmer for approximately 30 minutes or until all ingredients are cooked and the harder vegetables are tender enough to break easily with a spoon. 

Once the soup is cooked, remove the chicken thigh and set it aside, then place the remaining ingredients (all stock and all vegetables) into a food processor.  Blend until smooth or, if you prefer, leave a few chunkier pieces in. 

Chop the chicken into pea-size pieces.  As this makes two portions,
place half the chicken pieces into a food storage container or bag and add half the soup.

If you don’t want that much soup in one go, you can of course split this into more portions.  If you are following a pre-op diet like mine, make sure you have enough protein in your other meal of the day if you have less than half the chicken thigh in one meal.

Serve the remaining half of soup, with the remaining half of chopped chicken pieces, immediately. 

Gloriously simple, gloriously good!

Disclaimer: I am not a dietitian or medical professional.  These are simply ideas based on meals I have created to suit my own dietary needs and, as I’ve enjoyed them, I wanted to share them. If you are unsure about the suitability of any ingredients or recipes on my blog for your own requirements, please check with a health professional first. 

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Low-fat recipes | chicken recipes | chicken soup | chicken chowder | Low-cal soup | low-fat soup

Posted on by gloriouslygoodfood

Chicken, Vegetable & Potato Chowder with tomatoes

I know I use a lot of poultry and I do have recipes that don’t involve chicken, turkey or generally low-fat ingredients, but everybody’s more health conscious, I find I can’t lose weight unless I innovate with my food, and the end result is lots o low-fat poultry-based recipes!

Anyway, this is another recent family favourite…I came up with this one a few months ago and hadn’t done it for a while, so it was great to see that everyone was really excited that I’d made it again tonight (well, when I say everyone…Hannah, who is getting more and more fussy at the grand old age of 12, tolerated it, but still had 2 bowlfuls! lol)

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 20-30 mins
Serves: 8 good portions (under 200kcals per portion!) or 
6 very generous portions

Ingredients

  • 400g white potatoes
  • 300-350g chicken thigh fillets
  • 1 drained tin sweetcorn (285g drained)
  • 1 onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 250g broccoli
  • 1 tin/carton chopped tomatoes (400g)
  • 200-250g carrots
  • 2tbsp plain flour
  • 1l chicken stock (fresh or made from stock cubes…my personal preference is for Knorr Stockpots, but any good commercial stock will work)
  • 5g butter (I prefer to use real butter rather than low-fat alternatives, but I use it in very small quantities)
  • Salt (rock or sea) & ground chilli flakes, to taste

Method

  • Peel & chop the potatoes into approx 1.5cm chunks
  • Chop the ckicken into small chunks
  • Roughly chop the onion so the pieces are roughly on a par with the potatoes
  • Finely chop the garlic
  • Finely chop the carrots
  • Roughly chop the broccoli
  • Make up the chicken stock according to instructions (I will post my own authentic chicken stock recipe soon, I promise!)

In a big stockpot or casserole dish, melt the butter, then add the chopped onion & garlic.  Fry, stirring continuously, on a high heat for a minute or two.  Once they start browning & softening, add the chicken.

Season the chicken with a little salt and some ground chilli flakes (I go easy on the chilli at this stage so everyone can then add some chilli flakes according to their own taste at the table), stir and ensure the chicken is sealed/browned all over.

Turn the heat down to minimum (if you’re using an electric hob, take the pan off the heat as the hob will be too slow to respond) and add the flour.  Stir it in quickly, making sure it’s coated the chicken pieces and absorbed any juices, then gradually add a bit of stock, stir it in until the thick ‘sauce’ is smooth, then add a bit more and stir it in again, repeating this until you can add the entire stock.

Add the chopped tomatoes, potatoes, sweetcorn and carrots to the pot, but not the broccoli.

Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally, then put on a lid, turn the heat down to minimum and leave to simmer for approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  The potatoes should be cooked but not too soft at this point.

Add the broccoli, stir in and replace the lid.  Leave to cook until you’re happy with the broccoli consistency (about 5 minutes max for me as I like my broccoli fairly crunchy).

Serve on its own for a hearty, warming and filling low-calorie meal, or with some fresh crusty buttered bread for an indulgent treat…

Gloriously Good!;)

For more recipes, tips & general foodie stuff, go to www.gloriouslygoodfood.com