Hummusapien

Vegetable, Chickpea & Quinoa Soup + Giveaway Winner

42 Comments

You might as well make this soup in a bathtub and rub it all over your bod with a luffa.

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Who knew that “luffa” had two f’s? Not I, not I.

Before I forget, the winner of the MCT Lean vegan vanilla protein powder giveaway is Kathy V! Make sure to email me your shipping info.

Believe me when I say that this right here is one cray bowl of soup. It totally has every food group you’ll ever need in each spoonful: a smorgasbord of veggies, fiberlicious chickpeas and protein-packed quinoa.

But wait. Before I say another word about this soup, I have to tell you something. A student I counseled today lost twelve pounds! Did you hear me?! Twelve freaking pounds in three weeks. I nearly died. I nearly cried. It was like she was my daughter and she had just gotten her first A on an English test.  I was so bursting with pride that it nearly spilled all over the table. The priiiiiiide.

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At our previous appointment, we had talked about the plate technique and making an effort to include at least three or more food groups at each meal, one of which is always a fruit or vegetable. This helps encourage variety and balance. She made a conscious effort to ditch refined grains and opt for whole ones, along with upping her water intake and not eating out so much (even if it’s an innocent Panera sammie that’s secretly evil).

We talked about not labeling these achievements as a “diet” but rather as a healthy lifestyle. Diets are temporary fixes to lose weight. They don’t work in the long run because they’re unrealistic and unsustainable. That’s why they’re temporary. Eating real, healthy food is not.

We talked about understanding a food label, which is no easy task. The majority of people I work with have never even read a food label. Why would they? It’s not like we’re taught in school how to decode a food label and translate partially hydrogenated oil into the trans fat that’ll kill at least a fourth of us in 50 years. Oh no. We’re too busy studying the Iroquois tribe and memorizing constellations to mess with silly nutrition babble.

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Today we talked about my personal mantra, counting ingredients not calories. Now that she knew how to choose healthier options, I wanted to challenge her to start eliminating highly processed foods from her diet. I encouraged her to put the product back on the shelf if it had a big list of funky ingredients.  To demonstrate, I showed her a flavored Pringles ingredient list that had thirty trillion ingredients I could hardly pronounce, ranging from artificial colors to trans fat. The truth is that you don’t have to be a scientist to decipher the code. You don’t have to know what every disgusting chemical actually is. The bottom line is that if it sounds like science, it belongs in a lab, not your pantry.

If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it. Because loaded baked potato Pringles aren’t food. They’re…. fake flavored potato impostors with some SERIOUS junk in the trunk.

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Eeeeek I’ve spent this whole time writing about my fab patient and not this fab soup. I guess you’ll just have to trust me that this is the perfect soup because it 100% is. It’s also super duper easy to make.

Vegetable, Chickpea & Quinoa Soup > loaded baked potato Pringles.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:1]

Comments

  1. This sounds divine :). Soup is SO perfect this time of year. I could probably eat it for every meal and never get tired of it ;).

    Generally speaking, do you have a “limit” of the number of ingredients that a product contains for the food that you buy?

    Reply

    • Just noticed the second part of your comment! I don’t have a certain number of ingredients I stick to, because there’s a difference between having a lot of ingredients that are whole foods versus having a bunch of ingredients that are highly processed and largely preservatives and chemicals. But generally speaking, if it has a long list, I won’t buy it! Often times, the more ingredients something has the more processed it is.

      Reply

    • I just came accross your website and am highly excited about all the recipes you have. I have already printed 2 soups I am going to try this week! My kids love soup and that is how I manage to get most of the veggies into their tummies so these will be great and healthy resource!. excited!

      Reply

  3. You’re right — we hardly learn anything useful in school… I love your emphasis on maintaining a healthy lifestyle rather than a diet, and looking at ingredients rather than calories. Suh simple wisdom that goes on to make a huge difference. Oh, and lovin’ the soup too :)

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  4. Congrats on inspiring and achieving success with your student- what great advice and behaviours to evoke to her- so much better than the cray (best word) jargon all over the media etc.

    That soup looks amazing right about now- especially with the gloomy weather urgh.

    Reply

  6. You had me at “bathe in it” so no need to discuss further :) so great to hear about your student! I absolutely love the messages you impart: ingredients not calories, lifestyle not diet. I think I have the “lifestyle” aspect down pat but still working on the calories aspect. You’d think they come hand in hand but I still think about the fact that 14 almonds = 100 cals. UGH!

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  7. Congrats on your patient! It’s such an incredible feeling to make a difference in someones life! I still remember my first patient I counseled as a student and how happy it made me feel as he met his goals. I’m pretty sure I immediately called my mom : ) So happy to share this profession with people like you!

    Reply

  8. Wow! That is so amazing. Congrats on counseling success & congrats to your patient on an awesome job so far. I can tell you are proud, and you should be! As for luffa, I always thought it was spelled loofa so apparently it’s a mysterious word? Who knew. I love veg soup so I am going to have to bookmark this one.

    Reply

  12. Congrats to your student – that’s so awesome! I totally agree with what you said about not learning about label reading – nutrition should seriously become more of a focus in school.

    Love the look of this recipe, as always. :D

    Reply

  14. I had no idea luffa was spelled like that but I bet this soup would be awesome all over my bod. Haha. It looks amazing.

    That’s so great that someone you counseled lost 12 lbs! Good for her! I am sure you are on cloud 9. There are so many people out there who could use your help so keep up the great work girl!

    Reply

  17. I normally don’t leave reviews but this recipe is so amazing. I did everything except add the corn and celery (didn’t have them on hand) I used fresh green beans and tomatoes (instead of frozen beans and canned tomatoes) and used kale instead of spinach. I didn’t add much salt because this was dinner for my 1 year old son as well. I added red pepper flakes to my bowl and avocado to both our bowls and it was superb!This will be a regular in our home. Thanks for this recipe.

    Reply

  18. Belittling other subjects was unnecessary. History and astronomy are fascinating and important, and no more or less so than nutrition and other health sciences. IMO this attitude contributes to under-funding of arts and music in schools. There is so much to take from and learn about different disciplines; unfortunately we can’t possibly cover everything.

    Reply

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