Preference for high nutrient density and lower cost if possible
Vodka
Huel is kind of hard to beat. It has gotten me through struggle years.
I’m not a food doctor or whatever, so definitely check me… But it is my understanding that potato + dairy = basically everything you need to survive. So, my answer is potat soup.
Nearly every week for the past few months I prepare a big pot of borscht. The ingredients are cheap and easy to come by here: a huge bag each of carrots, onions, potatoes and beetroots cost only a few dollars and last a few weeks. If you have a few dollars left in your budget, pretty much any cut of porc should be cheap and easy to chop up into small stewing cubes. Garlic also goes great in the recipe.
Making the soup doesn’t require much skill, and honestly just takes a bit of time and prep work. Dice the onion without getting too picky about the size of your pieces. Peel the potatoes and dice them too, try to make the cubes somewhat similar in size. Chop up your meat (if you have some) in cubes of a similar size to your potatoes. Peel the carrots and grate them. Peel the beetroots and grate them. Don’t get too picky on quantities, but I usually follow the following ratio of ingredients: 2 parts beetroot, 2 parts carrot, 2 parts potatoes, 1 part onion, 1 part meat.
Finally actually cook the food. Boil the meat first and watch the water as it starts to boil, you’ll see some foam rise on the surface of the water, and you want to remove as much of it as possible. After boiling the meat for an hour, you can add the potatoes and beetroots to the pot. In a pan, cook your onions first until they’re translucent. Throw in some crushed garlic if you want at this point; if you do make sure to add the next ingredient only after you can smell the fragrance from the garlic cooking. Finally add the carrots and cook them until the carrots are softened,it should take a couple minutes, but don’t cook them to the point of burning them. Once finished add them to the pot.
Let the whole mixture simmer until the potatoes are soft, and don’t feel bad for cooking it for longer. Add salt to taste and add a spoonful of sour cream to your bowl before eating.
I’m sure there are some far more traditional ways to make this soup, but I have no Slavic roots and just really enjoy this recipe that resembles borscht, so I call it borscht.
boil the meat first
Dude… No…
I love borscht.
You can also start fermenting beetroots to add to the soup, I think traditionally the recipe was using fermented beets.
It quite easy to do, lacto-fermented vegetables have a lot of health benefits and it being umami and a slight tanginess to the soup that brings it to a complete new level.
Up your game, sauté the meat and veg first and add cabbage in there.
Nothing more nutritious than cabbage. And the fact that it tastes so good is just a bonus.
Some form of lentil or bean stew. Best if served over (brown) rice and vegetables, which are also easily prepared in a rice cooker / steamer combo.
Lentil soup with fresh vegetables.
Solid suggestion. Lentils are tasty, cheap, nutritional and very easy to work with.
Carrot and lentil with a little curry powder. Serve with garlic bread or naan
You’ll have to clarify what you mean by nutrients. In seeing some disagreements in the comments about whether things are nutritious or not because they’re using different definitions.
E.g. are you looking for high Calorie? Proteins and healthy fats? Large quantity of micronutrients? Large diversity of micronutrients? Or something else?
Probably lower carb decent protein and high fat, lots of micrnutrients and hopefully fibre
Yeah, definitely. I would argue that “nutritious” should mean “can I live off of this?”. From that context, you need high calorie, balanced macros, and no glaringly missing micronutrients.
I wonder if anyone’s made the soup version of completefoods.co (which is like a DIY soylent-making site).
Dal or similar? Lots of lentils for protein and fiber.
I think avgolemono (Greek) is a strong candidate here. Main ingredients are chicken, lemon, and egg yolks. Make it with a homemade chicken bone broth and I’m sure this packs a good amount of protein, vitamins and all that good stuff.
Serve over rice or lentils something to bulk it up.
The only thing with this is that there is a bit of finesse involved to incorporate the egg yolks without scrambling them, but even if that happens it’s still edible, just not as pretty lol.
Omg I made this once, it was sooo good. Love that lemon chicken flavor
You just need to temper the egg. Scramble in a separate bowl, and slowly drizzle in hot broth until you’ve added like 5x the volume of the egg yolks while whisking. After that, you can just pour into the pot. It’s how you do it for ice cream and other custards, too.
I can’t eat half of the ingredients anymore, but damn, this used to be a favorite.
Instead of rice or lentils, I’d mix in some orzo and let that cook right in the soup. Heaven.
Chicken Soup from scratch imho.
First make stock. Roasted chicken bones and spine are thrown in with a pound of chicken feet (adds collagen, stock is richer tasting). Carrot tops, parsley, bay leaf, and a tablespoon of vinegar thrown in. As much water is added as needed to submerge chicken, make absolutely sure not to overfill pressure cooker/pot. Stock is made in pressure cooker (fast) or large pot (slow), then strained.
Then soup. Add whole deboned chicken (previously roasted tastes better), carrots, Yukon potatoes (I like purple ones for cyanocobalamin), garlic, onions, thyme, sage, rosemary, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Optional to add a freshly beaten egg per serving (just pour slowly into soup to prevent clumping). Simmer for a few hours or just pressure cooked again.
Serve over quinoa with freshly chopped cilantro and green onions on top. Add more salt/pepper to taste.
Removed by mod
Depends what you count as soup. Congee is cheap to make, dense, and nutritious.
Congee is cheap to make, dense, and nutritious.
Agree with the first two, but very much not the third. Standard white rice is essentially pre-diabetic junk food, with most of its nutrients and fibre stripped out.
Simple hot oatmeal would be a decent substitute, with ~8x as much fibre, ~3x as much protein, lower glycemic impact, and a modest but positive cholesterol impact.
I mean, it is true that white rice could be considered filler food with little nutritional value, but compared to other cheap foods (in the US anyway), it’s probably better for you. I suppose I’m talking primarily talking about the heavily processed foods with added sugars - it would be better to have something with white rice than those. Unfortunately cheap, heavily processed foods are what most lower income people eat in the US. I consider those foods the actual pre-diabetic junk food. I also think a lot of people in the US likely add a ton of sugar to their oatmeal.
I love oatmeal, though, don’t get me wrong. I have oodles of oats around, both in my pantry and with my other emergency supplies (I’m talking about a dozen #10 cans of just oats).
I consider those foods the actual pre-diabetic junk food.
They’re even worse than that, really, since they’re not just pre-diabetic, but tend to be cancer-causing, arteriosclerosis-prone, and BP elevators, etc, as well. But just because white rice isn’t quite as disastrous as those other things is still no recommendation to actually eat the stuff regularly.
If I was asked, I’d recommend having it as an occasional treat, just like all other junk food. No extremism here.
You should tell Indians and Asians about just having rice as a treat :)
Funny, it was several East Asians who brought it to my attention in the first place. They were bemoaning how so many of their older relatives had developed diabetes II, and strongly suspected white rice as a key culprit.
I’d have to digup stats but I think USA had higher diabetes due to everything being sugar, at least carbs like rice have to be digested and aren’t instant sugar bomb
Oh, for sure. The US diet is horrible IME. Loads of sugar, salt, fried / hydrogenated oils in ultra-processed food. Absolutely crazy.
Meanwhile, the problem with white rice is not that it has simple carbs, but that it’s little more than just starch, which has a fast, deleterious effect on blood glycemic levels. So for the cultures that eat white with almost every meal, it can be a real problem.
Absolutely, and I didn’t mean to imply white rice was healthy or anything of the sort, or that you had an extremist take. I just think the lower class in the US has much more to worry about in this regard. You can definitely balance your carb intake, and as long as you’re aware of the amount of carbs you’re consuming and want white rice, I say go for it. You do need carbs to survive, after all, although carbs with fiber are obviously better suited for that.
If your only option is to eat white rice (and you don’t have something healthier, like hot oatmeal or other cheap grains & legumes), then sure.
You’re cool with me.
Critical question here is when do you cross the line differentiating a soup/stew and a casserole? What moisture content by weight or volume makes something a soup/stew?
Congee specifically, I would count as a porridge, but the thickness can be easily adjusted by adding more water or broth, or by simmering it for a shorter time.
I don’t think there is any hard and fast rule here; you just know one when you see it.
Kale? I read somewhere that kale is one of the most nutritionally dense leafy vegetable. Please don’t take my word as I could be wrong.
Depends on your definition of nutrition. 100 g of kale only has 28 calories, so if your definition of nutrition is “can I live off of this?” the answer is no. If it’s more of a “is this good for me?”, the answer would be yes.
Add lentils and some root veggies and you are probably on the money. Bone broth is probably also beneficial.
You get lots of opinions here, but very little useful stuff…
Here’s a few good options… Want it all in one soup? Then I’m not sure it would taste that good… But is taste a factor?
https://www.bodi.com/blog/these-are-the-healthiest-soups-you-can-eat
Potatoes, carrots, butternut, cook & mix (the onion can be made on the side and added after the mixing). Salt&pepper.
