Soups are a perfect meal for a snack, lunch or dinner and make use of all the vegetables that you may have lying around in the fridge.  To these basic recipes you can add any of your own cooked proteins or have the soup as a starter then have your protein with a salad. Soups are perfectly accompanied with a small bread roll, pita bread or flour tortilla and can be easily transported in a thermo flask keeping them hot or take them to work in a container to be reheated later.

Like with salads you can add different grains, legumes and flavouring to soups to make them more filling or something a little lighter.  You can also choose to have blended soups or keep them chunky making them more like a meal.  Play around with different flavours and vegetable combination until you find the soups you like. As a general rule start with a diced onion, a clove of garlic and a litre of chicken or vegetable stock, from here you can add in noodles, shredded chicken, Asian vegetables or whole vegetables as per the recipe below, or even pieces of diced beef or lamb. In the world of soup you are only limited by what you can fit into the pot.

For creamy soups without high fat content, substitute cream for light sour cream or evaporated milk, skinny milk or normal milk. Yoghurt is also great to add in at the end. You can add in tins of tomatoes and blend in cooked rice, potatoes or legumes to create a velvety soup without adding cream. Always season the soup with salt and pepper and add in your fresh spinach rocket or herbs at the end just before blending.

Creamy Zucchini and basil soup

Serves 4   Prep time 10 minutes    Cooking time 15 minutes

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 750ml chicken stock
• 5 zucchini, trimmed and chopped
• ½ cup fresh basil leaves
• ¼ cup sour cream
• ½ cup milk
• Salt and Pepper

Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the onion and garlic, cook for 5 minutes. Add in the stock, zucchini and  the basil and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes until the zucchini is soft.  Using a stick blender or blender blend the soup with the milk and sour cream, season with salt and pepper and continue to blend until smooth.