Healthy/balanced soup for low appetite?

Question

My grandmother is sick with lung cancer; the pain has significantly reduced her appetite. Prior to this second bout of cancer (or the first) we suspected she had orthorexia nervosa - her obsession with "healthy" food included things like a fear of salt that led to a family member she feeds suffering from hyponatraemia. As such, she's not eating much but rejecting a lot of food.

I need a recipe for soup that:
- tastes pretty good
- has no added sugars (she won't eat it),
- a few complex carbs but not too many carbs or "simple" carbs
- has a bit of healthy fat (she won't admit it, but she has been repeatedly told to gain weight; she won't eat fat unless it is hidden in something)
- packs a nutritional punch so she can stay fairly balanced even when she cannot eat much
- preferably freezable, so I can make packets for her to just take when she does not want to cook
** NO SOY/TOFU and no processed products: she shouldn't be eating the former and she will reject the later. Any protein should come from legumes for her to eat it, or small bits of meat (she is more likely to eat fish; chicken/white okay, red meat is a struggle for her to accept).

If it is vegan, with a lot of vegetables, she is more likely to accept it; however, anything balanced she might be willing to try. It can be chunky or pureed; she likes both - chunky feels more like food, but pureeing is best when one cannot eat (hey, a soup that works as both would be great!).

Does anyone have a good soup recipe that just makes them feel healthy?

? · Accepted Answer

Vegetable soup is BRILLIANT. Lentils and chickpeas give it substance. Just mix veg, lentils and chickpeas with vegetable stock. It's a good idea to blend it if she is finding it hard to eat, since blended soup is more like a drink - chunky soup isn't great when you aren't feeling up to eating.

Simmer some vegetables until they are soft, add chickpeas and lentils to it if you wish, and then add a small amount of stock, so that it doesn't turn out too thick, and blend them. Finishing it off with a glug of cream will add to the fat and calorie content. If she will eat white meat, add cooked chicken to it before blending, because it's a great source of protein and fat.

Great thing about soup is that you can make a lot and freeze it - if you do that, however, DO NOT add cream to it because it will spoil the soup when it is reheated. Only add cream to individual portions of the soup.

Healthy/balanced soup for low appetite?

1 Answer