Healthy Cream of Chicken Soup

I'm a big fan of those creamy soups and chowders! Unfortunately they are not all that good for our health the way they are typically made. This is easily fixed with a few key swaps which I have given you in this recipe.

Cream of Chicken Soup

Swaps to make a Healthy Cream of Chicken Soup

The first swap is to make the white sauce with extra virgin olive oil. This is one of the best oils for health. That doesn't mean we need a lot of it, as all oils are high in kilojoules. It just means that it has the best evidence behind it as being beneficial for our health, especially our heart health.

The next swap is to add in the vegetables. The recipes I looked at just used vegetables to help make the broth. That is great, but where are the vegetables in the soup? Go the extra mile and add in whatever vegetables you enjoy. I'm sure I could have added more than I did for this photo.

Another swap was to use chicken breast. Most recipes use chicken on the bone, like legs, wings or Maryland. I don't have a big problem with these as they have the best flavoured chicken. The main issue typically is the fat under the skin, plus it is fiddly trying to get the chicken off the bone. To reduce fat and make it easier to work with, I find chicken breast that is trimmed of fat, quite nice. The flavour difference isn't worth worrying over, especially since we added in extra flavour with the mushroom and veggies.

Finally, if you like to have some bread with your soup as most people I know do, why not make it into cheesy toast. Doing this will add in the health benefits of the cheese (ie calcium). While just buttering your toast is not doing your health much good.

So see how you go with these swaps and enjoy your soup! Yum!