A hearty soup that's a doddle to make. Serve with Lo-Dough as a low-carb bread replacement to keep the calories and carbs down and for a huge fibre boost!

For a light lunch, what's better than a lovely bowl of soup? Once made, it can be batch up and reheated in minutes as well as being tasty and nutritious.  

The method is simple and will supply around 4-6 portions (depending on how hungry you are!). It will keep in the fridge for up to five days and can be used for lunches throughout the week, or can be frozen and eaten at a later date. 

If you felt inclined, you could adapt this recipe with whatever flavours you like. Add ginger, chillies, lemongrass and coconut milk and go in a Thai direction or mixed and match other vegetables (butternut squash, pumpkin and celeriac work brilliantly) and herbs. Warming spices would work as well. 

Follow the steps below, and a fantastic, ready-to-batch soup will be all yours within the hour.

1. You'll need 1 large butternut squash/half a pumpkin, 2 onions (we used red, but white are just as good), 1 clove of garlic, a lemon and a stockpot/cube. As ever - you'll need a touch of seasoning and a little oil/1cal spray.  

2. Cut your butternut squash into roughly 8 wedges and remove the seeds - be careful cutting the wedges, squashes can be a bit tough. Peel the onions and chop them into quarters and place both veg on a tray with a little oil/1 cal spray and some salt.

 

3. Roast the veg in a preheated oven at around 200°C/392°F for 30 minutes. This step will massively improve the flavour of the end soup by driving off excess water from the veg, thus concentrating their flavour. You will also at a little char here and there, which again, is adding flavour. Once done, remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few moments. 

4. Add a little olive oil or fry light in a large sauce pan and gently fry your garlic. Only for a minute - don't allow it to catch.  

5. Roughly chop up the squash (leave the skin on - it's perfectly edible and full of fibre - plus we will be blending it anyway) and throw into the pan with the onions, stockpot and enough water to cover. You can also add the zest from your lemon. Why waste it - it will add a lovely lemony note to the soup. Boil for around 10 minutes.  

6. Once, boiled together - liquidise your soup. You can use a stick blender if you like, though the texture won't quite be as velvety-smooth. Add a splash of whole milk or cream here if desired.

If liquidising, this process is safer done in two separate batches. 

7. Transfer to a bowl and add a good squeeze of lemon to balance the sweetness of the squash and the onion. Check one last time for seasoning too. Store in the fridge or freeze in batches.

Per Portion of soup
Calories: 104 kcal
Carbs: 26g
Fat: 1g
Protein: 3g
Fibre: 6g
Sugar: 6g

Check it out - Our cheesy garlic bread would only add 264 kcal and 5g carbs to the meal - not to mention 9.3g of gut-healthy fibre! 

Or how about our grilled cheese toastie... 336 kcal and just 2.2g carbs.

Finally, this sweet soup will work brilliantly with our tangy cheese and pickle sandwich - just 298 kcal and 23g carbs. 

 

ONE FINAL PRO TIP: Don't remove the lid of the liquidiser and accidentally nudge the 'on' button, sending one of the portions all over your kitchen.