But I don’t want to make it from scratch. Is there something out there I can buy in dry or canned form that will be low cal, low fat, and low-to-zero cholesterol? I assume anything with animal products will be bad, but if there is something that fits my needs, well, hey…I’m a carnivore and will scarf it down. Any suggestions?
There are lots. What do you like? Mixed vegetable? Peas soup (watch out for ham)? Bean soup (ditto)? Animal products are necessarily bad–for example nonfat chicken or beef broth won’t add anything unheathful. You can also get lower fat versions of things like clam chowder or chili. What you want to avoid is things with whole milk, cheese or fatty meat. You’ll have to read labels, though, soups can be deceptive. Something veggie like cream of mushroom can have lots of fat, while something non-veggie like turkey chili can be relatively low.
I like Muir Glen soups (tomato, minestrone, lentil). I also recently tried Annie’s Organic Tuscan White Bean which was delicious. You can probably just browse the grocery store and check labels to find what you’re looking for. You might also look into some vegeterian garden vegetable chili. More filling and more delicious to me - and probably still low fat.
Seconding the vote for Annie’s Organics. The bean soups in particular are great; I eat the black bean soup a lot.
Annie’s sounds very good. I’m in the Chicago area. Do they carry it around here? I’m not much of a soup eater (but I’m gonna start, damn it) so I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout buyin’ soup, Ms. Scarlett!
Canned soups are great, for what they are. With a little more effort on a weekend or day off, you can whip up a huge batch of soup and have soup for all week that tastes even better. I even freeze soup in those take-n-toss plastic tubs (I don’t toss, I reuse), just make sure not to fill it more than 3/4 full or it’ll open as it expands in freezing. Then I pack it in a plastic bag, still frozen, and it acts as its own cooler until lunchtime. Nuke and eat.
That’s not to say you need oodles of recipes or expertise. I absolutely adore Frontier Soups. Most of them are soup starters with simple recipes that you add some stuff to, which gives you a great deal of control over your final soup. Don’t like chicken? Don’t add it. Want low fat? Use milk instead of the recommended cream.
They’re woman owned and operated (if supporting minority and women owned businesses is of value to you), and the soups contain no salt, preservatives or MSG. The veggies in them are freeze-dried instead of dehydrated, which means they reconstitute to taste and feel like real fresh veggies instead of that slightly chewy or mushy thing you get from dried veggies. And their “serving” is actually a realistic, fill-you-up serving size. They are so yummy!
(I swear, I don’t work for them, I just really like their soups.)
You can get Annie’s at Whole Foods, Wild Oats and limited selections of it in Dominick’s and Jewel in the “Organic hippie food” section. I agree that it’s very good vegetarian soup.
Are you sure the name is Annie’s and not Amy’s?
Because there are Annie’s Homegrown organic products (best mac and cheese out of a box EVAR) but no soups listed on her site.
There are soups on Amy’s Kitchen site. I think those are pretty new, too.
Um…I think **romansperson **is right.
Furthermore, I think I’ve been conflating the two companies all along. :smack:
I think romansperson is right. Annie’s Homegrown just makes boxed pastas (my kids adore the Bunnies and Cheese over any other brand) and Annie’s Naturals makes salad dressings and sauces. Amy’s kitchen makes soups and frozen meals.
I usually like the tast of Amy’s foods well enough, but when they are cooking they often give off a weirdly strong oniony smell that I don’t care for. This is mainly true for tomato-based things.
Jeeez…I noticed little bits of granola falling onto my keyboard after reading this thread. I am trying to lose 10 lbs AND control my cholesterol. I’m hoping this is the ticket. I shall don a pair of Birkenstocks and head on over to Jewel to see if they have those Frontier Soups. They sound like just what I’m looking for.
By the way, anyone out there doing low-carb pasta? Should I bother?
I’ve eaten low carb and whole grain pastas and find that they vary a lot. Some of them taste too much like wood shavings for my taste. Whole wheat pasta is usually fine, but some of the other ones like spelt and brown rice, not so much. I’m not much of a pasta fan anyway–I prefer brown rice, or cous cous a lot of the time.
If you can’t find Frontier, Progresso has a whole list of 100 calorie per serving soups on their website. (Note a serving is probably half an can or less.)
Frontier is tricky to find in stores. Great Harvest Bread Co. stores (there’s one in Evanston) stock a limited selection. I order online. There will be some similar soup starters at Jewel, in different brands, but I don’t like them as much. Worth a try to get things rolling though.
There are a few kinds of low-carb pasta, and they all pretty much suck. The best solution I’ve found is to go for the whole grain pasta. Not low carb, but higher fiber, so some of the carb doesn’t “count”.
Frontier’s got a page on their low carb soups
I realize you said you didn’t want to go from scratch but if you pick yourself up a package of vegetarian boullion cubes and some pre-chopped vegetables you can dump those in a pot of water and simmer for about 8 minutes and you have soup. IIRC Knorr’s brand vegetarian cubes are actually vegetarian (some “vegetarian” cubes, inexplicably, aren’t). Grab a package of tofu for protein.
Man, that sausage/lentil soup looks awesome. Too bad I don’t get any. I’ll take a look at Jewel’s soup starters. I’m sure there’s something there I will like.
This is a good idea. I can do a package of frozen mixed veggies and boullion cubes. Maybe a little chicken. I don’t relate to tofu. I can’t get past the texture.
Beans are good lowfat protein, and go well in soups. I detest beans in anything but soup and chili, actually. I also remembered a really easy, low-fat yummy soup that people who don’t like soup like. It’s almost, but not quite, like a chili: Weight Watchers Lowfat Taco Soup I use a bag of frozen corn or, even better, Trader’s Joe’s Roasted Corn (frozen) instead of canned corn. You could easily leave out the turkey or replace it with a bag of veggie crumbles (Morningstar Farms or Boca).
Thank you! The sad news is, before I posted I actually looked up Annie’s website to see if I could find the nutritional data on “her” soups and I was surprised that there was no mention of soup on the website but went ahead with my post anyway. 
Good work romansperson!
Yeah, Amy’s. That’s what I meant. :o