Soup - an easy way to help our health and planet

11 January 2022

This season it’s all about souping up your spoon and embracing the deliciously diverse world of soup. It isn’t only a great way to use up leftovers and reduce food waste, but it’s also an easy way to add more plants to our diets and diversify the types of food we eat. By eating a variety of different types of plants including vegetables, pulses and lentils, it helps include a range of different essential nutrients into our diets.

Research shows eating in line with UK dietary guidelines will be better for the planet than the current average UK diet (1). The UK Government’s dietary recommendations, (known as the ‘Eatwell guide') are made up of the five key food groups and the proportions the diet should be made up of these foods to meet nutritional recommendations. Eating more plants is one of the ways we can eat more in line with dietary guidelines and have a positive impact on both our own health and the planets. Currently, only 27% (2) of people in the UK meet the recommended 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day and around a third of all food is wasted, contributing to 8% of greenhouse gas emissions (3).

providing good food for all of us recipes

Our recipes are quick, easy and tasty and could help you use up some of the food in your fridge that would otherwise go to waste (4) and add more plants to dishes to get a variety of nutrients from a range of different food groups.

Here are some of the benefits of ingredients in the recipes:

RECIPE	FACTS	MORE INFO
PEA AND LEEK	Did you know peas are not just packed full of protein, they also help nourish the soil as they grow too.	More info about how peas nourish the soil can be found here.
FRAGRANT NOODLE SOUP	Broad beans aren't just packed full of fibre, but they also help nourish the soil as they grow.	More info about how beans nourish the soil they’re grown in can be found here.
RED PEPPER	Chickpeas may be small, but they pack a punch. Not only are they a great source of protein and packed with fibre, but when they are grown in rotations with other crops they also help nourish the soil.	More info about how chickpeas nourish the soil they’re grown in can be found here.
LENTIL SHORBA	Lentils aren't as thirsty as other plants so they can grow in drier conditions, and they also help keep bones healthy.	More info about how lentils can grow in drier conditions can be found here.