ATLANTA — One of the most inspiring meals during my recent trip to Spain began with a bowl of soup.
A gorgeous gigante white bean soup served with a glass of Spanish Rioja was presented to me as a first course during lunch at Meson de Candido Restaurant in Segovia. The 200-year-old Meson de Candido is famous for the tradition of roasted suckling piglets, so you can guess where this soup gets its flavor! (Actually the recipe calls for one pig's ear and one pig's foot along with chorizo sausage and some cured Serrano ham.)
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Soups are the very essence of comfort and flavor, and I've always loved them— steaming hot noodle soups to warm you in winter and icy cold gazpachos to cool things down in summer.
Nowhere is the popularity of soups better experienced in Atlanta than being part of the line that forms daily at Souper Jenny. Jenny Levison, now in her 10th year of being what she calls a "soup slinger," creates six soups a day including menu favorites such as Absolutely Everything Veggie and Chicken Tortilla Soup. (A cookbook due out by the holidays will reveal her "Souper" secrets.)
Besides being a time-honored way of coaxing the flavors from foods, soups are nutrient rich, and because of their high liquid content soups are coming into focus as an important and tasty tool in weight control. They fill you up without filling you out.
Now obviously, a tomato-based Manhattan clam chowder will have fewer calories and fat than a cream-based New England clam chowder, but soups in general are important to add satiety to a meal. And we all know how important controlling hunger is when we're trying to eat less to weigh less. Weight-management research shows that starting your meal with a bowl of soup will help you eat fewer calories at that meal. Add to that a two-hour walking tour of Segovia's magical sights after lunch at Meson de Candido and you've got the perfect recipe for enjoying great food while traveling. My luggage may have been overweight on my trip back home, but I wasn't!
Soup's on, weight's off
Dr. Barbara Rolls, a weight control researcher at Pennsylvania State University and author of "The Volumetrics Eating Plan," found that eating soup as a first course helped study participants lose weight because they consumed fewer total calories in the rest of the meal. But, that doesn't mean you can gorge on New England clam chowder made with heavy cream.
The broth-based soups they consumed, even though they were lower in fat and calories than other foods choices, helped to increase feelings of satiety. Rolls' theory is that the more water a food contains the more full we feel. "If you don't like soup, start your meal with a salad, a piece of fruit, or a glass of vegetable juice," Rolls suggests in her book.
And the lower the energy density of a food (the concentration of fat and calories) the more we can eat. Two hundred calories will buy you just 1 cup of cream of broccoli soup with cheese; but for the same calorie level you get 2 1/2 cups of vegetable beef broth soup.
Soup savvy
— Broth-based: From Japanese miso soup to classic French beef bouillon, these broth soups (chicken, beef or vegetable based) are among the lowest in calories (50-80 calories per cup). French onion soup starts off as an onion broth, then they pile on the bread and cheese (360 calories a cup); so maybe just eat half of the gooey cheesy topping.
— Tomato-based: Vegetable soups, minestrone, Manhattan clam chowder and gazpacho are tomato based and therefore lower in fat than milk or cream based soups (80-120 calories per cup). And since they're usually chock-full of vegetables, they add healthy fiber to the soup mix, which makes them an even healthier choice.
— Cream-based: Cream of anything soup will bump the calories up by 100 calories a cup. So even though cream of broccoli or cream of asparagus soup sound like a good way to eat your vegetables, just note that you're looking at about 180 calories per cup. The same goes for lobster bisque. Note: if a restaurant uses milk and some pureed vegetables to make their "cream soups," that lowers the fat and ups the veggie quotient.
— Flour-thickened soups: Seafood gumbo is thickened with a mixture of flour and fat called a roux. Many cream-based soups are made this way, too, including New England clam chowder. So every bite may be thick and creamy, but count 260 calories a cup or 520 calories for a large 16-ounce bowl.
— What's that in your soup? Watch the garnishes as they pile up on top. Shredded cheddar cheese, bacon crumbles, fried croutons, a dollop of sour cream or chunks of avocado in tortilla soup add an extra 50 calories per tablespoon.
— If you're watching your sodium intake: Yes, it is really hard to find lower sodium restaurant soups. But generally, if chefs make their own soups they rely on other ingredients besides salt for flavor. For your home pantry, happily, there are more good tasting canned soups which are lower in sodium today, too.
Carolyn O'Neil is a registered dietitian and co-author of "The Dish on Eating Healthy and Being Fabulous!" E-mail: carolyn AT carolynoneil.com.
