9 Soups That Benefit Gut Health – Wealth Creation Investing

view original post

We love enjoying healthful soups in the cold months, but choosing a soup that’s seriously good for you can sometimes be tricky. Because soups often coincide with health (chicken soup being the most classic cold remedy), soups in general can come with a bit of a “health halo.” But not every soup you see is necessarily that great for you — many canned soups, for instance, are loaded up with added sugars.

The following soup recipes are not only seriously delicious, but they’re also great for your digestive health. Packed with prebiotics, probiotics, and more gut health heroes, these warming soups will help keep your digestive system on track — which will help the rest of you flourish, too.

1. Chicken Spinach Artichoke Soup

Chicken Spinach Soup Unsplash

Spinach-artichoke dip is an old-school American classic appetizer that — like shrimp cocktail or deviled eggs — we’ll never be too cool for. This chicken spinach artichoke soup is a play on the classic dip, and uses the same flavor profile, but turns the whole dish into a Whole30 and keto-friendly soup instead. The most important components (spinach and artichoke) are still the star of the show, of course — which is good news for your gut, since globe artichokes have been shown to have a prebiotic effect.

Try this from Paleo Running Momma.

2. Nata’s Pork Pozole Rojo

Pozole Rojo Unsplash

Healthy eating doesn’t have to mean flavor-free, culture-less eating, and this pozole recipe is a great example of that: This dish is richly layered with spices and is a traditional family recipe hailing from San Luis Potosí, Mexico. People sometimes think that they have to cut culturally important ingredients like corn from their diet if they’re trying to eat healthily, but that’s never the case. While it’s true that tons of processed corn sneak its way into processed foods all the time, corn itself isn’t bad for you, and when it comes to grains, hominy is arguably the most nutritious corn product on the market due to a process called nixtamalization, which makes nutrients more easily absorbed by your body. It’s also a great source of prebiotic fiber — and this soup also contains tons of onion and garlic, which are bona fide gut health stars.

Try this from Familia Kitchen.

3. Salmon Miso Soup

Miso Soup Unsplash

With just five ingredients, this salmon miso soup is both delicious and fantastically simple. When choosing soba noodles, look for juwari soba, made from buckwheat flour, rather than other soba noodles, which can be a combination of buckwheat and refined flour. The recipe author mentions this, but it bears repeating: Make sure you stir your miso paste in when the soup is much cooler than a simmer. Live probiotic cultures do not live past 115°F, so add fermented foods like miso, sauerkraut, and kimchi later to preserve their gut health benefits.

Try this from Honest Food.

4. Olive Harvest Soup

Harvest Soup Unsplash

This Italian soup recipe makes great use of extra-virgin olive oil, which has been shown to affect the gut microbiota by stimulating the growth of beneficial bacteria while simultaneously reducing the pathogenic “bad” bacteria — so it’s amazing for rebalancing your gut health. To make this dish vegan, simply leave out the pancetta (there will still be plenty of flavor, promise). This would be so delicious served with a simple Mediterranean cabbage salad, which also makes great use of the rest of the cabbage leaves used in the recipe.

Try this from Italian Food Forever.

5. Mushroom & Sunchoke Soup

Mushroom Soup Unsplash

This gluten-free, plant-based soup is elegant, simple, and easy to make — which means it’s a winner already. But it’s also fantastic for your gut health, since sunchokes, aka Jerusalem Artichokes, are one of the best sources of inulin, a prebiotic that supports digestive health. They also taste kind of like a cross between artichoke hearts and French fries, despite being incredibly good for you, so there’s that, too. We’d serve this with a side salad topped with chicken or chickpeas for an added protein boost.

Try this from Feasting At Home.

6. Broccoli and Almond Soup

Broccoli Soup Unsplash

This broccoli and almond soup are a great, light meal — although we’d add some smoked paprika to the mix for a bigger pop of flavor. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli contain glucosinolates, which help feed the good bacteria in your gut, and almonds have the ability to improve your gut’s microbiota profile. Make it even healthier (and tastier) by swirling in a dollop of Greek yogurt after serving. Research indicates that people who eat a lot of yogurts have more lactobacilli and less Enterobacteriaceae (aka, more good bacteria and less inflammation-causing bacteria).

Try this from This Healthy Kitchen.

7. Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup

Turmeric Soup Unsplash

This healing soup, which is loaded with great anti-inflammatory spices like turmeric and cumin, is also extremely good for your gut health due to the presence of prebiotic fiber in both lentils and farro, an ancient grain that is also a great source of protein, fiber, iron, and magnesium. This dish would be enough on its own for a light meal, but for a fuller dinner, we’d also recommend pairing with some smoky cumin-roasted carrots served with a dill yogurt.

Try this from Life is but a Dish.

8. Vegan Chestnut Soup

Chestnut Soup Unsplash

Chestnuts are among the highest polyphenol sources out there. Polyphenols are a type of plant chemical that gut microbes are especially smitten with, so the good bacteria in your gut feed on them and create flourishing little cultures. If you haven’t tried chestnuts before, they’re pretty different from other nuts — once cooked, they have softer, chewier texture, and taste more like sweet potatoes than nuts. They’re a tasty, seasonal winter treat.

Try this from Lavender and Macarons.

9. Potato and Leek Soup

Leek and Potato Soups that Benefit Gut Health Unsplash

A 2023 study found that leeks contain a variety of bioactive substances, including sulfur compounds, dietary fiber, and flavonoid compounds that benefit gut health. Not only that, but they’re beneficial to lowering cholesterol, reducing inflammation, and promotes blood circulation. This delicious, creamy, and nutritious potato and leek soup is one of the best soups that benefit gut health while offering a cozy and satisfying meal.

Try this from Love and Lemons.