One-minute cream soup: 4 ways to make it more filling

A cup of cream soup is 50 g of dry mix: legume purée, dried vegetables, spices. Add hot water, wait a minute — and you have roughly 250 ml of soup with 10 g of protein. Enough for a snack; for lunch after a workout or a long day — not always. Here are four additions we use ourselves, and one rule about water.

1. Croutons or crispbread

The simplest way. A handful of rye croutons or two thin crispbreads broken straight into the cup add 60–80 kcal and, more importantly, texture: the cream soup stops being uniform. Drop them into the finished soup, not under the water, or they go soggy. Lentil and pea like garlic rye croutons, chickpea prefers neutral wheat ones.

2. A spoon of seeds

A tablespoon of pumpkin seeds is about 5 g of protein and 8 g of fat; a tablespoon of sunflower seeds slightly less. Toast the seeds in a dry pan for 2–3 min in advance and keep a jar at work: one spoon on top makes the soup 80–90 kcal more filling with no sugar or flour. Chopped walnuts go well with the mushroom soup, sesame with the kharcho.

3. A spoon of oil

The dry mix has almost no fat: 1.5 g per 100 g in the lentil soup. That is why it digests quickly and you are hungry again two hours later. A teaspoon of unrefined olive or flaxseed oil (about 40 kcal) slows absorption, rounds out the flavour and helps you absorb the fat-soluble vitamins from the vegetables. Add the oil to the finished soup, not to the boiling water, to keep its aroma.

4. Greens and fresh vegetables

A handful of chopped dill, parsley or spring onion costs 30 seconds, and the soup immediately smells home-made. Half a tomato or half a cucumber, diced — and the chickpea soup gets a tang and freshness. For the coconut curry try coriander and a few drops of lime, for the kharcho — coriander and crushed garlic.

When to add less water

The cup has a fill line — that is the standard cream soup consistency. If you are adding croutons or seeds, pour the water a finger below it: the additions will give up some moisture and the soup will not turn thin. Same if you want a thick purée to eat with a fork and bread. And the other way round: if you top up with plant milk for a creamier taste, reduce the water by its volume — about 50 ml.

All four additions together add 200–250 kcal and 8–10 g of protein to the cup — turning a light snack into a proper lunch. Instead of a stove, one mug of boiling water.