This is the final soup recipe for my collection of 12 Super Soups. All these recipes can be found in my book 5:2 Healthy Eating for Life as well as here on this site.
I make a lot of soups as they are a great way of getting to eat more vegetables!
A lot of people think that cheese is too high in calories to use on a fast day, but if you use a little strong cheese, it is amazing what a difference it can make to both the flavour and the texture. Because parmesan is a little salty too, it helps to balance your electrolytes – when you may have been drinking a lot of fluids on a fast day, you do need some salt to replace what may have been lost or is missing because you haven’t eaten. So whereas on non-fast days I rarely use salt in cooking, on fast days I like to make sure that something salty is part of our menu. That could be capers or pickles, air dried ham perhaps, or the stock that I use in soup.
- ½ tbsp olive oil
- ½ large onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1 stalk celery, chopped
- ¼ cauliflower florets (150g)
- 1 medium carrot, chopped
- ¼ sweet red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
- 500ml chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 tsp pesto
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- A few basil leaves, roughly torn
- 10g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- Heat oil in large pan and gently sauté the onions and garlic for about 5 minutes, until a little softened.
- Then add the celery, carrot and red pepper and cook gently for a further 10 minutes, adding a little water if necessary to prevent them sticking.
- Add the cauliflower, parsley and stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes until the cauliflower is tender.
- Add the pesto and adjust the seasoning to taste.
- Serve in warmed bowls with some basil leaves and a sprinkle of Parmesan.
- Per serving: kcals 124
- Carbs 14g Fat 6g Protein 5g
- You could add some pasta or cannelini beans to make a more substantial soup for a non-fast day.