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Theoretically, having more choices is a good thing, but when you’re out to eat and your waiter asks, “Soup or salad?” most of us would rather bury our faces under the napkin than make even one more decision. (We can make one choice for you, though: Skip the bread roll, which certainly isn’t on the list of the best carbs for a flat belly!) But soups really are critical to weight loss, especially when they happen to be fat-burning soups.
Here are 18 of our favorite weight-loss, fat-burning soup recipes for a healthier cold-weather season without weight gain. And to make sure you maximize your soup benefits, be sure to avoid these worst ingredients to put into your soup!
10. French Onion Soup
We’re not going to lie: Good French onion soup takes time. But it takes almost no effort, other than fighting back the tears as you chop your way through the five onions. And wouldn’t you rather deal with a few errant tears than with a lackluster, overpriced bowl of soup that packs as much saturated fat as 20 strips of bacon and more sodium than nine bags of Lay’s potato chips, like those at many chain restaurants? Now that’s a real reason to cry, especially when you can make your own French onion soup at home.
11. Italian Meatball Soup
Order a plate of spaghetti and meatballs in Italy, and you’ll likely leave your waiter dumbfounded, scratching his head for an answer. That’s because one of America’s favorite Italian dishes is a purely American invention, one that generally hinges on our typical tenets of excess. In Italy, polpettine are more likely to be enjoyed in a lighter fashion, either by themselves or in a soup like the one here. The pasta is still there (albeit a much smaller portion of it), but the broth houses a handful of stellar vegetables and serves to keep the meatballs moist and luscious. Though it’s light in calories, this is still a potent bowl of goodness—served with a lightly dressed salad, it makes for an incredible weekday dinner.
12. Italian Sausage Soup
The best definition of comfort food is the food mom made when you were growing up. You can load this deceptively simple soup full of vegetables, doubling the amount used in our recipe, and end up with a chunky, sausage-strewn minestrone. Either way, this soup is hearty enough to work as dinner on its own.
13. Split Pea Soup
Split peas rank up there as one of the heroes of the health-food world, boasting deep reserves of fiber, B vitamins, and dozens of other vital nutrients. But despite their reputation as a straightlaced superfood, something magical happens to split peas when combined with a bit of smoky ham and a long, slow simmer. Slowly they begin to break down, commingling with the ham and the other vegetables to create a thick, creamy broth that could warm even the most frigid soul on a long winter day.
14. Cuban Tomato and Black Bean Soup
Here, we combine two beloved soups: tomato and Cuban black bean for one flavor-packed bowl of deliciousness. Even with the combination of jalapeño, red, and green peppers, ham hock, onions, and all the other fixings, we make sure to keep things as light as possible, thanks to the reduced-sodium black beans, no-salt-added diced tomatoes, unsalted chicken broth, and the addition of Greek yogurt for a healthy garnish.
15. Green Chile Pork Soup
This hearty soup is infused with pork, beans, peppers, russet potatoes, onions, and roasted corn, and it’s perfect for a slow cooker. It’s low in calories and will give you 25 grams of protein, plus six grams of fiber, so you’ll stay full.
16. Roasted Tomato Soup
There really is no greater pairing than a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. In our version, you get hit with some pure tomato intensity with every spoonful, thanks to an oven roasting technique, which concentrates the natural sugars of the tomatoes. It’s all the goodness of a comfort-food dish, with half the calories.
17. Chicken and Dumplings Soup
This chicken and dumplings recipe has many of the core flavors of chicken noodle soup—root vegetables, savory broth, and shredded chicken—but it is made more substantial by the addition of a roux to thicken the soup base and help create those fluffy dumplings.
18. Easy Chicken and Rice Soup
This delicious recipe from our Zero Belly Cookbook makes for a deliciously easy lunchtime (or anytime) soup. It’s ready in just 15 minutes, so you can make a big batch for the week and have meal-prep done in no time!