Lunch is always the trickiest meal of the day as you can never really figure out what to have. You don’t want something too heavy as you’ll feel sluggish for the rest of the afternoon, and you don’t want something too light or you’ll be snacking until dinner. The perfect lunch gives you the feeling of being full, but not overly full, ensuring you have enough energy to carry you through to the evening. 

Not only that, but your lunch needs to be healthy, and this is where a lot of us miss the beat. We tend to find quick lunches, which usually involve pre-made sandwiches or other things that simply aren’t that good for us. Instead, you should consider having soup for lunch now and then. It’s really good for you, packed full of nutrients, and easy to eat. Here are four simple soups that are perfect for a healthy lunch:

Tomato soup

Can you really go wrong with tomato soup? It’s one of the easiest soups to make, and you can play around with the recipe as much as you want. Generally, it’s a case of getting some high-quality tomatoes and dicing them up with some carrot and celery in a pan, adding onion to it as well. This forms the base of your soup, and you can add all sorts of flavors at this point. Some people add some chili for extra heat, while others add in roasted peppers. Mix in some stock and tomato puree, then blend everything after simmering for a few minutes. Just like that, you have a tasty and healthy tomato soup!

Celery soup

If you are really looking to reduce your calorie intake to help you lose weight, celery soup is a fantastic choice. This is such a light meal, yet it fills you up quite substantially. Most soups will be filling because there’s so much liquid entering your system. The beauty of celery soup is that it is so simple. All you need is some celery, along with some potatoes. The potatoes are the key here, adding more thickness and texture to the soup, and also making it slightly more nutritious and filling. All you have to do is cut up your celery and potatoes into small chunks, then fry them in a pan with some garlic and oil. Stir them around, adding water if they start to stick, before adding in the veg stock and some milk of your choice. Cook for a bit longer, then begin your blitz to blend it up and enjoy your homemade soup.

Butternut squash soup

Butternut squash is one of the most underrated root vegetables around. It is such a sweet and delicious vegetable that goes perfectly in soups. You can create so many different combinations here, such as butternut squash soup with apple, butternut and beetroot soup, or butternut squash and chili. For a basic soup, you only need your squash and some onions/shallots, along with garlic, veggie stock, and a series of spices. Always roast the butternut squash to get more flavor out of it, and then you can add in anything else that you think would go well with it. This is one of the best things about soups in general; there are so many ways to tweak a recipe and make it your own.

Lentil soup

Lentil soup is one of the most substantial soups you can eat. While it might sound quite boring, it’s actually a really tasty dish that you should consider making. The ingredients for a basic lentil soup include celery, a tin of chopped tomatoes, carrot, onion, stock of your choosing, garlic, some spices, and bay leaves. Of course, you need lentils as well! You add all other ingredients to a pan and let them fry off and then cover once you add the stock. Everything simmers and the flavors cook before you lightly blitz up the soup. The lentils cook in the soup for over 35 minutes, so you can use dried ones. Alternatively, you can add cooked ones after you have blitzed the soup – it’s up to you. The result is a thick and creamy lentil soup that tastes very delicious. 

Obviously, you can play around with all these soup recipes and find ones that are more to your liking. These four ideas can be considered the base ideas for lunchtime soups! Also, when you blitz your soup up, you can blitz it to your own tastes. Some people prefer slightly chunkier and more rustic soup, while others like theirs super thin. All soups can refrigerate or freeze, meaning you have them on-hand to microwave whenever you need them.