A warm bowl of soup always rallies thoughts of comfort, satiation, and calm, thanks in large part to the multitude of savory and soothing combinations there are to enjoy, even on a low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet.
Plus, making and preserving mouth-watering soups is a fantastic way to extend and leverage your weekly food preparation efforts to invest in your immediate and future food reserve provisions, as some processing methods, like canning, aid in keeping foods fresh for years in many cases.
Besides, everyone tends to love soup, from the littles to the adults. Also, it's most efficient if you can find everyday recipes liked by everyone in your home, so you're not making many styles of meals to keep everyone well-fed and happy.
Also, whether you cozy up to a warm, oversized, cup of broth wafting a hint of beef or chicken, or you opt for a heartier, keto chowder, the recipes we'll share are simple to make or scout and work well for lunch, dinner, or even a keto-friendly snack.
Besides, the ease and convenience provided by having pre-portioned soups, stews, or chili handy you access nutrient-dense, delicious food in minutes. Just heat and eat your food.
Another word on meal preparation: it's a great idea to dedicate time during a day or two a week to make and store meals for future enjoyment throughout the week; we hope you identify at least a few keto soups to add to your prepping list below.
Nevertheless, similar to sauces, soups can act as an invaluable asset to avoid food fatigue or serve as a landmine for hidden sugars. A good rule of thumb is always to read labels closely and avoid eating ingredients you can barely pronounce—keep it simple.
Honestly, even if a soup makes the mark in terms of its macros, having a low net-carb count isn't always enough to cut it in terms of an individual foods' health benefits.
The thing is this: ditching the carbs in no way means forgetting the importance of eating foods with healthy fats and proteins, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants or diminish the importance of avoiding highly-processed foods with sketchy additives.
Here are some ingredients or elements to avoid when making or buying soups to consume on keto:
Ingredients:
- Trans Fats: No matter the diet plan or goals, it's always advisable to avoid partially hydrogenated oils or vegetable shortening in your foods as they may lead to long-term health issues and negatively impact weight-loss progress.
- Added Juice: It may sound like an odd additive in soup, but some recipes call for different juices to create particular flavors. Steer clear of these varieties and look for options with sugar-free flavoring options.
- Sugar By Any Other Name: Sugar is in many foods; it's almost alarming when you start paying attention and scrutinizing the macros and ingredients noted on labels.
Besides, seeing sugar on a label, or noted in macros, sugar, or an artificial sugar alternative may be present under another name. Options like agave syrup or coconut sugar may clearly be options to avoid on keto, but sometimes whether a sugar alternative is keto-friendly and healthy can be unclear. As a starting point, here are some sugar alternatives to avoid:
- Maltodextrin: It's best to limit the consumption of foods sweetened with this option as eating large amounts can cause spikes in blood glucose levels—which may increase cravings and also compromise heart health.
- FiberYum: This option will most likely affect ketosis with a glycemic index of 35—way too high on a ketogenic diet!
- Aspartame: Although the body won't log this ingredient in your macros, as the body cannot digest it, aspartame is said to have a carcinogenic effect, increasing the probability of developing some forms of cancer—steer clear.
- Sucralose: Although this ingredient offers a lot of sweetness per serving, it is also associated with gut inflammation and best to avoid, especially since there are many sugar alternatives without potential side effects available.
- Maltitol: While this ingredient is in many sugar-free foods, it's advisable to limit consumption as eating it in large amounts is known to cause digestive issues for some.
- Coconut Sugar: We often enjoy coconut products—like coconut milk, water, oil, and butter—on keto without any glucose-related issues, but coconut sugar is different. Like cane sugar, coconut sugar can impact glucose levels, causing unwanted spikes and dips. However, fortunately, it is possible to recreate high-carb soup recipes with the right keto-friendly substitutions.
Here are some sweeteners that are ideal on keto, and those to look for on labels when stocking up on ingredients, sauces, or soups:
- Stevia (365 Whole Foods or SweetLeaf are fantastic options)
- Monk Fruit
- Erythritol
- Xylitol
- Swerve
- Lakanto
- Sukrin
- Allulose
Toxic Elements:
Ingredients are vital, but remember to consider how your food is preserved and processed as well. It’s essential to avoid elements other than high-glycemic foods or sugars when eating canned foods. Here are some things to stay away from when sourcing canned soups:
- Opt for BPA-free Cans: Bisphenol A, known to many as BPA, is an organic synthetic compound found in many cans used to preserve food and is linked to several health issues.
Although BPA is in many containers, it has fallen out of fashion in recent years due to its link to the toxic endocrine, mutagenic and carcinogenic effect it often produces in the body.
Fortunately, most companies have listened to the public and use BPA-free packaging due to consumer outcry.
Look at labels and confirm that any store-bought soup notes that the container used is free of BPA.
- Avoid MSG (a.k.a., Monosodium glutamate, sodium glutamate, or processed free glutamic acid): Some may only know of MSG as the secret weapon that enhances fast food’s flavor, but, unfortunately, it’s associated side effects may leave a bad taste in your mouth.
From causing abdominal discomfort on the mild end to major issues like disrupting endocrine function and delaying puberty, causing weight gain, or triggering liver inflammation, among other issues, we’d advise avoiding foods made with this item to err on the side of caution.
- Ditch GMOs and Pesticides: It can feel as though it’s becoming more of a challenge to access organic foods, untreated with pesticides, and devoid of genetically-modified organisms. More confusing still is that it’s not required of food companies to disclose whether their foods contain said GMOs.
It may take time to identify any direct links to illness and eating genetically-modified foods, but pesticides are already shown to pose health risks.
Opt for organic ingredients whenever possible per your budget.
The safest option with soup and other foods is making it ourselves. Homemade soup allows us to monitor ingredients and omit undesirable elements. However, we’re all doing our best and short on time as we navigate our world’s new normal, and it’s okay to include safely-packaged store-bought soup options in your keto meal plan when necessary.
Homemade Soup Recipes
OK, so now that we've covered the basics on ingredients and best practices, let's explore some tasty keto-friendly soup recipes, that we recommend and enjoy ourselves, that you can easily make at home:
- Creamy Keto Pumpkin Soup: We will hopefully have an ample supply of pumpkin throughout autumn and fall—and this is also a food to consider canning yourself for cost-effective long-term food preservation. Try this savory and slightly sweet, velvety, soup today!
- Creamy Keto Broccoli & Cheese Soup: There are few more satisfying soup recipes than good broccoli and cheese soup. Plus, we find that the kiddos tend to love this selection as much as the adults!
- Creamy Taco Soup (keto-version)
- Cabbage Sausage Soup
- Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
- Cream of Asparagus Soup
- Bacon Cauliflower Chowder
- Warm Me Up Slow Cooker Chili (not a soup, technically, but worth a mention!)
- Thai Chicken Coconut Soup
- Chicken Avocado Lime Soup
- Cream of Zucchini Soup
- Creamy Garlic Chicken Soup
- French Onion Soup
- Beef Stroganoff Soup
- Creamy Lemon Chicken Soup with Spinach
- Chicken Cordon Bleu Soup
- Chicken and Avocado Soup
- Shrimp and Bacon Chowder
- Easy Hamburger Stew
- Paleo Keto Cabbage Roll Soup
- Bacon Cheeseburger Soup
- Queso Soup
- Simple Tomato Feta Soup
- Keto Crab Dip Soup
- Bone Broth: You should also maintain an ample supply of a variety of bone broths, whether homemade in your pressure cooker or store-bought, to sip on solo or use as the base for a wide array of sauces or soups.
Some try a bone-broth diet for a few days when kick-starting or resetting a keto diet to jumpstart significant weight loss in the first few weeks on the plan, but it's also great to add bone broth in any iteration when eating a keto diet because it's rich in electrolytes.
Keto-friendly Store-bought Soups
While you may love making soup from scratch, others—or you at some point—may want a more convenient option a’ la heat-and-eat style. Here are some keto-friendly, store-bought soup options that work well on a ketogenic diet:
- Keto Kettle & Fire Soup and bone broth
- Proper Good
- Costco Broccoli Cheddar Soup
- True Primal Soup
- Bariatric Choice High Protein Soup Mix
- Freeze Dried Miso Soup
- Wild Zora Soup Mix, Lemon Chicken
- BariWise High Protein Low-Carb Diet Soup Mix
- WonderSlim Low-Carb Diet High Protein Soup Mix - Tomato Soup
- Proti-Thin High Protein Soup
- Beyond Broth, Organic Vegan Vegetable Instant Sipping Broth (r.e., Immune, Vitality, or Yummy Tummy)
Preservation
OK, so we've covered ingredients to mind and some keto-friendly soup recipes to try. But once ready to start keto, we're still left with the task of effectively portioning and preserving foods at their pique of freshness.
You could store your soups and broths in a variety of ways, depending on how soon you plan to use the food and some other factors. Hopefully, one of the methods mentioned below will help you determine how to preserve your meal prepped soups and other meals.
All soups may seem healthy, and they could be nutritious too, but they may also contain too many carbs to work for you if your goal is achieving and maintaining metabolic ketosis.
Always keep a close eye on carb macros and scan the ingredients label to ensure you're not getting served a hidden side of sugar with your broth.
Also, many soups are hearty and filling on their own, but sometimes you may want to add additional texture and flavor to your bowl, in the form of keto croutons or parmesan crisps.
Fortunately, we now have access to more keto crisp or crouton products to enjoy nowadays than you may realize. Here are some options to pair with your favorite warm and tasty soup selection:
- Shrewd Foods, Parmesan Herb Protein Croutons, 2g net carbs for 15 g, .53 oz)
- Shrewd Foods, Savory Protein Puffs: 2g net carbs for 21g or a single-serving bag,
- Whisps Cheese Crisps
- Snack House Nacho Cheese Puffs
- HighKey Cheese Crunch, Cheese & Egg White High Protein Cheese Crisps
- Chick N’ Skin Fried Chicken Skins
- FBomb Keto Krunch Cheese Crisps (e.g., buffalo, garlic herb, and salt and vinegar, etc.)
- PIMP MY SALAD (Vegan Spiced Sprouted Sunflower Seeds)
- Granarolo Premium Oven Baked 100% Italian Cheese Crisps (e.g., rosemary, pizza, Classico, and cheddar)
It's easy to incorporate any of the soups mentioned in your keto meal plan. However, take our brief quiz for instant access to a keto weight-loss program, tailored to you, if you prefer a personalized weight loss meal plan and desire more individualized structure.
Plus, the soups mentioned are an excellent complement to the limitless keto bread options you can whip up at home or purchase online or in-store.
Here are a few delicious bread recipes to try alongside your choice of low-carb, high-fat soup:
Summary
Like adding premium solid foods to your weekly diet plan, replacement shakes, like our Keto Shake, along with soups, are excellent foods to add to your keto diet, especially when time is short and bellies are grumbling.
Plus, a shake takes seconds to blend, and soups are easy to prepare ahead and store long-term, with so many varieties to try.
From homemade brews to store-bought soups, to opening soups you've canned and kept safe for years and now want to enjoy, the recipe options are virtually endless.
Consider including soup-making into your weekly meal prep and sealing or canning, so you'll also always have a fast and fresh meal at hand, on-demand, ready in a few minutes.
There are few limits to a ketogenic diet, aside from eliminating sugars, eating moderate amounts of protein, and investing in consuming healthy fats—enjoy!
Please join us online in our Facebook group to share your keto journey, exchange helpful tips with others, and garner inspiration to keep you focused for the long haul.
Remember, keto is a lifestyle, not a diet, and no one is an island—we all travel farther and better equipped together.
Sources:
- Ansari, S., Fatima, S., & Fahamiya, N. (2019). Low Carb Diet Outranked a Low Fat Diet in Weight Loss. Middle East Journal of Rehabilitation and Health Studies, 6(4). doi:10.5812/mejrh.96547
- Antony, F. (2018). How to deal with obesity with lifestyle modified diet. Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy, 08. doi:10.4172/2165-7904-c8-077
- Dupuis, N., & Auvin, S. (2016). Anti-Inflammatory Effects of a Ketogenic Diet. Oxford Medicine Online. doi:10.1093/med/9780190497996.003.0017
- Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy. (n.d.). doi:10.4172/2165-7904
- Lomangino, K. (2008). ADA Recommends Low-Carb Diets for Weight Loss. Clinical Nutrition INSIGHT, 34(2), 7-9. doi:10.1097/01.nmd.0000311965.01818.f8
- Slomski, A. (2019). Low-Carb Diets Help Maintain Weight Loss. Jama, 321(4), 335. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.2203
- Ganesan, K., Habboush, Y., & Sultan, S. (2018). Intermittent Fasting: The Choice for a Healthier Lifestyle. Cureus. doi:10.7759/cureus.2947
