Canned Lentil Soup (Modifying for Less Fiber)

[giftedmadness]

I had eaten a canned lentil soup from ALDI a few weeks ago and was taken back by how much fiber was in it so this time around I modified it to have less of an impact if you know what I'm saying.

I added diced canned tomatoes, cooked quinoa, and whole almonds that I smashed up, along with a squirt of sriracha and it turned out very good. I'm sure rice could easily be substituted for the quinoa.

I'd say it was 75% canned lentil soup from ALDI with the rest of the soup comprising of diced tomatoes and quinoa with the almonds mixed in for crunch.

[jennyema]

With the quinoa and the almonds, you might have added even more fiber than you took out.

Maybe white rice or white potatoes?

[BreezyCooking]

Goodness!! Quinoa & almonds!! What in heaven's name made you think you were diluting the fiber in the soup?

[giftedmadness]

Lentils are 31% fiber
almonds are 12% fiber
and quinoa is 7% fiber

I guess I'm good at math.

[jennyema]

It depends on how much lentil was taken out and how much quinoa and almond were added.

Both quinoa and almonds are considered fiber-rich foods, so adding them is a curious choice if your goal is to reduce the amount of fiber you are eating.

[Andy M.]

Originally Posted by giftedmadness

Lentils are 31% fiber
almonds are 12% fiber
and quinoa is 7% fiber

I guess I'm good at math.

Too much trouble to make a canned soup be what you want. With all the ingredients you have to choose from, make your own from scratch.

[giftedmadness]

Originally Posted by jennyema

It depends on how much lentil was taken out and how much quinoa and almond were added.

Both quinoa and almonds are considered fiber-rich foods, so adding them is a curious choice if your goal is to reduce the amount of fiber you are eating.

Lentils have more than triple the fiber of quinoa and more than double the fiber of almonds. Obviously the lentils are replaced with the lesser fiber foods, so of course the fiber is reduced by a significant factor.

[jennyema]

Originally Posted by giftedmadness

Lentils have more than triple the fiber of quinoa and more than double the fiber of almonds. Obviously the lentils are replaced with the lesser fiber foods, so of course the fiber is reduced by a significant factor.

Obviously, it depends on the amounts you took out and added. It very well could be that you only cut down insignificantly on the amount of fiber in the soup.

And my other point was that it's curious that you substituted other high fiber foods for the lentils if your goal was to cut down on fiber.

Lentil soup is one of the easiest soups to make. I usually make mine a bit like Barbara Kafka's Equadorian lentil soup recipe using lentils, potatoes and habarnero peppers.

[joesfolk]

According to my doctor fiber sort of works in both directions...tightens things up or loosens things up depending on how much water is in your system along with the other stuff in there. So the whole question may be mute to begin with. In other words maybe it wasn't the fiber that caused your reaction.

[giftedmadness]

Originally Posted by jennyema

Obviously, it depends on the amounts you took out and added. It very well could be that you only cut down insignificantly on the amount of fiber in the soup.

And my other point was that it's curious that you substituted other high fiber foods for the lentils if your goal was to cut down on fiber.

Lentil soup is one of the easiest soups to make. I usually make mine a bit like Barbara Kafka's Equadorian lentil soup recipe using lentils, potatoes and habarnero peppers.

They might be considered high fiber foods, but not compared to lentils. Lentils are VERY high in fiber, while almonds and quinoa are moderately high in fiber.

Consider this analogy. Let's say you are offered 100 pieces of paper money. Would you want them all the one-hundred dollar bills or for them all to be 50 dollar bills? If someone gave you 100 one-hundred dollar bills and then later replaced 25 of those bills with $50 bills, wouldn't that be a reduction in the overall amount of money you received? Same thing in this case.

[Addie]

So in the end, did you enjoy your soup? That is all that matters. If you feel that you accomplished what you wanted to, and are happy with your meal, then by all means stay with what you did. One can't eat math. It has no flavor. Happy eating!

[taxlady]

Giftedmadness, your math is probably right. You probably did get less fibre/ml with your additions. However, we find it odd that you chose high fibre food with which to do this. I doubt that you lowered the fibre significantly.

I would have thought that one would dilute with stock, milk or cream, potatoes without the skins, or something else with little or no fibre.

[buckytom]

you could have always just drank a few pints of irish cider with your soup to get things moving, as it were.

much more fun.

[vitauta]

no modifications needed here. i guess i'm good at fiber....:)

[CWS4322]

I'd do it from scratch...and probably do something like this:

2 lb lentils, rinsed
2-28 oz. chopped tomatoes (I'd probably use one of my 1.5 l jars, but for those who don't have home canned tomatoes could use canned)
14 oz. tomato sauce (again, I'd use 2 cups of the home-canned sauce I have)
2 l (32 oz) veggie, beef, or chicken stock
4-5 stalks chopped celery
1 onion
3-4 cloves garlic
3-4 chopped carrots

Use a large stock pot.
1. Saute the celery, onion, garlic, carrots.
2. Add the rinsed lentils. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, veggie stock. Season with some flat leaf parsley, hot pepper flakes, thyme, S&P.
3. Simmer about 35 minutes. About 5 minutes before serving, add 1-2 tsp fresh lemon zest. This would make about 12-16 servings.

To reduce the fiber, I'd cut back on the lentils, up the tomatoes.

[giftedmadness]

Originally Posted by GotGarlic

I'm curious why you decided to bring up this argument again after a year and a half.

comas are a bitch.

[giftedmadness]

Originally Posted by no mayonnaise

Quite bizarre, I didn't even realize that.



That's a rather poor analogy. The overall amount of fiber in the soup was increased with the additions.

I guess you didn't read the above arguments. You don't eat the entire batch of soup at once. You only get to eat "100 paper bills" at a time.

[giftedmadness]

Originally Posted by no mayonnaise

Quite bizarre, I didn't even realize that.



That's a rather poor analogy. The overall amount of fiber in the soup was increased with the additions.

When you make a batch of soup, do you eat the entire thing or just one bowl?

[giftedmadness]

Originally Posted by jennyema

It depends on how much lentil was taken out and how much quinoa and almond were added.

Both quinoa and almonds are considered fiber-rich foods, so adding them is a curious choice if your goal is to reduce the amount of fiber you are eating.

Umm...who said I took out any lentils? Nothing was taken out of the soup...

things were only added to the soup. Assuming you eat the same amount of food, it's impossible to not have less fiber.

[buckytom]

quinoa just all get along?