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A bowl of vegetable soup with white beans, cabbage, green beans and tomato beside the pot on a wooden table

7 Day Vegetable Soup Diet Recipe: Weight Loss Soup With White Beans

Prep
25 min
Cook
40 min
Total
1 h 5 min
Servings
8 bowls

One big pot of cabbage, tomato, green bean and white bean soup, bright with lemon and paprika, that gives you 8 bowls of 231 calories and 12 g of protein. Plus how to use it for a week without a crash plan, and what the soup trials really found.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbspolive oil
  • 1 mediumonion, diced
  • 3 mediumcarrots, sliced into coins
  • 3 stalkcelery, sliced
  • 4 clovegarlic, minced
  • 1 mediumred bell pepper, diced
  • 1 tspdried oregano
  • 1 tsppaprika
  • 6 cupgreen cabbage, shredded, about half a small head
  • 3 cupcrushed tomatoes, a little less than one 28-ounce can
  • 2 cupvegetable broth
  • 6 cupwater
  • 2 cupgreen beans, trimmed, cut in 1-inch pieces
  • 2 mediumzucchini, cut in half-moons
  • 3 cupcanned white beans, cannellini or great northern, about two 15-ounce cans, drained and rinsed
  • 4 cupbaby spinach, loosely packed
  • 2 tbsplemon juice
  • 1/2 tspblack pepper

Instructions

  1. Soften the onion, carrots and celery. Warm the olive oil in a pot of at least 6 quarts (5.7 liters) over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery and cook for about 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is soft and the edges of the carrots start to color.
    Diced onion, carrot coins and sliced celery softening in olive oil in a dark pan on the stove
  2. Add the garlic, pepper and spices. Stir in the garlic, red bell pepper, oregano and paprika and cook for 2 minutes, until the garlic smells sweet and the paprika darkens slightly. Do not let the garlic brown.
  3. Simmer the cabbage in tomato and broth. Add the cabbage, crushed tomatoes, vegetable broth and water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, partly covered, for 15 minutes, until the cabbage is tender.
    Shredded green cabbage and carrot coins simmering in a tomato broth in a dark pot, with a little steam
  4. Add the green beans, zucchini and white beans. Stir in the green beans, zucchini and drained white beans. Simmer 10 to 12 minutes more, until a green bean bends easily but still has a little snap.
  5. Finish with spinach and lemon. Take the pot off the heat. Stir in the spinach until it wilts, then the lemon juice and black pepper. Taste, and add a pinch of salt only if it needs it, because the broth, tomatoes and beans already carry salt.
    A pot of vegetable soup with white beans, zucchini, cabbage and wilted spinach, a lemon half beside it

Notes

  • Rinsing the canned beans in a colander takes off the starchy, salty liquid and keeps the broth clear.
  • The green beans should still snap a little at the end: they soften more when you reheat a bowl.
  • Cool the soup in shallow containers, keep 3 to 4 days of it in the fridge and freeze the rest (USDA FSIS).

Nutrition Facts

Per serving (estimated) : Calories: 231 | Total Carbohydrate: 41 g | Protein: 12 g | Total Fat: 4 g | Sodium: 723 mg

Category: Weight & ProteinAuthor: Bogdan DCuisine: American