Health in a Bowl - Chicken Meatball and Vegetable Soup

Trying to stay fit is a challenge that a lot of us face and I have been

struggling with weight issues for a long time now – excess weight and excess

body fat as well. Up until a while back, the only focus for me was exercise.

Moderate workout 3-4 times a week and I ate everything that my heart desired.

Recently my husband and I decided that we need to re-look our diet so we are

trying a low/no carb diet. The basic idea is to consume less calories than you

burn each day and choose your calorie intake from low glyceimic index foods –

which translates to a high protein diet, loaded with lots of vegetables and

minimal carbs.

As scary as it sounded to a carboholic like me, it’s not that difficult

actually. We really watch what we eat for 6 days of the week and one day is our day off. A day to hog and eat all we like and want to eat. And then back to the diet. This coupled with the same amount of exercise as before is showing

promising results already. Probably what we’re doing is a bit extreme but the

results are visible. And there are wonderful technology enablers to help you do

this effectively. There are smartphone apps which will help you to track your

calorie consumption and exercise and recommend a daily calorie intake based on your weight loss goals.

So far the exercise has been a lot of fun. In addition to the results on the scale, I am always excited by the challenge of creating something new, different and healthy. Vegetables and fruits used to make up a small section of my refrigerator but things have changed a lot. All meals are loaded with vegetables and fat consumption has gone down. There is a lot of stuff I have tried in this duration and I will bring it to the blog one by one. I’ll start with a soup that has become a staple in my kitchen. It is consumed happily once or even twice a week. It’s very healthy, quick and easy to prepare. Loaded with vegetables, protein and lots of flavor, this is a must try.

Some things to note on this one is – I prefer to grind my own chicken because that way I am assured that I am using low fat high protein meat. This soup can be made vegetarian just as easily by skipping the chicken meatballs and substituting vegetable broth for chicken broth/stock. Of course one can add tofu at the end as well and add more vegetables than this recipe. But since

this is a chunky soup, be choiceful of the vegetables used and the stage at

which they are added to the soup. I generally like root vegetables in my soups

and prefer to avoid vegetables like bell peppers, zucchini etc which may get too soft and mushy in the soups. If these need to be added however, add them towards the end of the cooking process so they continue to retain their bite and flavor. When adding stock, make sure you adjust the amount of salt in the soup as readymade broths tend to be fairly salty. Adding herbs and spices to the chicken meatballs and the soup itself will always add extra flavor which makes every sip and bite more delightful. This recipe is amazingly flexible and you can change it any way you like.