Are you looking for healthy soup recipes for babies and kids?
How to include soups in a baby's diet?
How can we prepare easy nutritious soups for kids and babies?
A generous amount of nutrition and energy packed with warmth is what a bowl of soup is all about. Easy to prepare and consume, it is the ultimate comfort food especially when one is sick.
In this post, I have compiled 15 healthy soup recipes for babies and kids but can be enjoyed by adults too.
Benefits of including soup in your child's diet
Soups can be added to your babies diet from his 6 th month onwards, the only thing to take care is you should use ingredients that are age appropriate.
Soup is easy to prepare and has a list of benefits when prepared fresh and consumed in the right way. Some benefits are given below.
Making your child eat his portion of vegetables is sometimes the greatest struggle that parents have. A good soup prepared with vegetables and legumes can come to your help in such situations.
While preparing soup you can include small quantities, as fine pieces or puree, the vegetables your kid hates with a large quantity of the vegetable he loves. This will mask the taste of the vegetable he doesn't favor and make him eat the same.This is not the right approach to make your kid love his vegetables, but yes sometimes as parents we do have to take some shortcuts too when you have a picky eater.
Soups can be thin and watery in consistency or thick and creamy. Either way, there is no argument that it does have a good amount of water. So soups help you increase your water intake too.
With main ingredients being vegetables, legumes or meat, soup is a powerhouse of nutrients, vitamins, minerals and proteins.
The fluid we use to cook vegetable or meat is normally discarded while making other dishes but not in the case of soups. This makes sure that the water-soluble nutrients that leaked out of your ingredients while cooking go straight to your tummy itself without getting wasted.
A warm cup of soup is best during winters. It is good to warm up your body when the climate is cold outside. A bowl of warm soup is the best thing you can have when you struggle with a stuffed nose or a fever.
Added to this warm or heated food has its own benefits because some nutrients are absorbed well by the body when they are heated than when eaten raw.
During colds, cough, congestion and fever a warm bowl of soup can be served as main meals too if one is not comfortable eating chunky bites of foods.As most of the soups are flavored with garlic, pepper and turmeric, it helps in reducing cold and coughs too.
Two healthy soup recipes that can help you in cold and fever are chicken soup and tomato basil herbal soup or rasam.
Soups can help you gain weight or lose weight according to the type of soup you consume and the ingredients you use.
If you are having a bowl of watery consistency soup with fewer calories just before a meal it can help reduce your weight by cutting the chances of overeating.
And for those parents, who are looking for ways to increase the weight of your kids, try thick creamy textured soups high in calories with a dollop of cream, butter or ghee. Add in pasta, rice or noodles to the soup to increase the calorie intake and serve them as evening or mid morning snack or even as a side dish for main meals. This will ensure that they get a good amount of calories and nutrients too.
Read: Top 50 Foods for Weight Gain in Babies and Kids
If your baby has no pearly whites yet or if he has not mastered the art of chewing food properly, then soups are a good way to make him eat. It is easy to consume and require less chewing and also the larger chunks of vegetable can be pureed to make it suitable for small babies.
Why homemade soups are the best?
While instant soups are readily available in the market and seem to be the easier way, it is not the healthiest option.
A quick look at the contents of these packaged soups can surprise you as most of the soups have just artificial flavors and cornstarch or any thickening agent and nothing extra.
The commercially available packet soups are loaded with salt and preservatives.The chicken soups you consider healthy have artificial chicken flavor plus some cornstarch and spices, that's it.
No health benefits but a lot of preservatives, artificial color and flavor is what you will be serving your kids when you go for those ready to cook or eat soups.
Homemade soups are best and can be made fresh with vegetables of your choice minus the chemicals and salt.
15 Healthy Soup Recipes for Babies and Kids
Here is your easy way to learn how to make homemade healthy soup recipes for the whole family. You can click on the respective headers to get the recipe of soups mentioned.
Chicken soup is a yummy and delicious soup and the best soup of all time that can be started from the 8th month for babies. If your baby is suffering from cold and cough, this soup is the best food.
This chicken soup is actually a low fat soup recipe. Chicken soup can be made in a watery clear consistency or thick consistency by blending the vegetables like carrots, beans, peas etc. along with the shredded cooked chicken pieces.
Including greens in your baby's diet is very important. Spinach is one green leafy vegetable that is rich in vitamins and minerals.
This soup has potatoes too so that it hides the rawness of spinach. You can also add corn, lentils or cheese to this soup. Make sure the corn kernels are well blended so that the baby doesn't choke. You can also take the juice of the boiled corn kernels.
Spinach soup can be given for babies from 7th month. For babies above 1-year-old, you can add milk cream too instead of potatoes.
Mixed vegetable soup is apt for picky eaters. For fussy eaters who are experts in picking out the vegetables from their plate, mixed vegetable soup is the answer.
Any vegetables can be used for this soup. Rich in minerals and nutrients this soup can be started for babies right from 6 months in the form of clear liquid. Only make sure the veggies you add in the soup are already introduced individually to the kid and the kid has not shown any allergy to it.
Lentil soup or 'dal paani' is rich in proteins and iron required for the healthy development of babies. It has a unique taste and is the best when served with a teaspoon of ghee.
Lentil soup is considered as a source of good carbohydrates too. It can be started from 6 months onwards and serves as a first food for babies.
Read: 6 Month Old Feeding Schedule
Tomato soup is my last resort when I have run out of vegetables on that particular day. Simply boil tomatoes with skin, peel off once cooled, deseed and then mash to a soup consistency. Add a little salt and provide it your toddler. You can also add butter to this soup.
Rich in lycopene that offers powerful antioxidants, tomatoes add that glaze and glow to your baby skin too.
Tomato soup can be given from 8 th month onwards.
Read: Tomato Rice Recipe and tomato dosa recipe for babies and kids.
Moringa leaves or drumstick leaves soup is an extremely healthy vegetarian soup. Moringa leaves being rich in Vitamin A and other essential nutrients are available throughout the year and a good leafy vegetable to be introduced to your baby.
Make sure that moringa leaves are not used for cooking in monsoon time as there is a possibility of small insects in it.
Read:
Beetroot carrot soup is simple to make yet delicious and full of goodness. Babies who are anemic or with low hemoglobin levels can benefit from this soup.
Beetroot carrot soup is rich in beta-carotenes, foliate, magnesium, iron and other nutrients.
Chickpeas or Bengal gram are rich in protein and anti-oxidants. They are also good to improve blood iron level and also help in good bone growth.
The addition of spinach to this chickpeas soup recipe increases the nutritional value even more and also gives a good color and texture to the soup.
This soup can be given to babies above 10 months.
Sweet corn or sugar corn is a special maize variety that is a starchy vegetable.It is gluten-free with a good amount of dietary fibers and carbohydrates. It also contains minerals like zinc, magnesium, iron and copper.
This soup can be given to babies above 11 months. You can also serve this as a side dish for vegetable paratha, dosa, bread or sandwich.
This ragi soup can be had as such or as a side dish for dosa, idli , chapathi or rice. It is loaded with nutrients and easy to make too.
The main ingredient of this soup is without doubt ragi. Any vegetables of your choice can also be added to this soup. Milk and butter are also added and this enhances the flavor and texture too.
This can be given to babies above one year.
Read: 12 Ragi Recipes for Babies, Toddlers and Kids
#11. . Vegetable Clear Soup with Broccoli and Carrots
If your kid hates eating vegetables then this vegetable clear soup can be your savior.
The preparation of this soup is a two-step process. First you make the vegetable stock, second, you combine it into the vegetable soup.
Cauliflower, carrots and broccoli that are good in Vitamin K and peas and beans that are protein rich are used in this soup. Coriander added to this soup is excellent for eyes and also helps maintain proper digestion.
For kids below one year, you can puree the entire mixture in a blender or give the clear vegetable soup after taking out the chunky vegetables and omitting corn flour while making.
Carrot and tomato make a great combination. The rich red color of this soup is indeed a treat to the eyes and is enough to spark interest even in the pickiest eaters.
You can add different vegetables too into this soup and make it more nutritious and serve as a side dish for paratha or dosa even bread or sandwich.
This soup is rich in vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid, beta-carotene and anti-oxidants and helps boost immunity.
Tomato carrot soup is ideal for babies above 10 months of age and is especially good for kids who have low immunity and get sick often.
Rasam is a popular south Indian soup that is served after the main course meal to aid digestion.
Tomato rasam is also an excellent soup when you have a cold and cough as it contains tulsi, pepper, jeera, garlic and turmeric. It can be taken along with rice or can be taken as such.
You can also add vegetables to this recipe to make it more nutritious.
To get the recipe for an instant rasam powder click here.
This vegetable soup with spinach and sprouts is a super-quick recipe that can be served to kids above 8 months. With spinach, sprouts, potatoes, tomatoes and beans this soup is ideal for making your evening snack or dinner a nutritious one.
#15. Broccoli Cheese SoupThe soup has a rich creamy texture and can be easily made if you follow the steps as per the recipe.
Steam the broccoli, mash and puree it with cheese. It is a simple soup recipe that is loaded with the goodness of cheese and broccoli. This soup can be served to babies above 8 months of age.
Hope you liked this post on various easy healthy soup recipes for babies and kids.
The only thing you have to take care is that you shouldn't include too much of soups in your kid's diet. Soups are easy to make and consume but that doesn't mean it should replace other solid foods. It can be a snack or a side dish or occasionally a main meal when served with rice or noodles, but not a throughout the day food.
Do you give soups to kids? Which ones are your kid's favorite healthy soup recipes?
If you have any healthy soup recipes that you would like to share with us, please feel free.
