Why am I posting a list of 11 soups under 250 Calories per serving?  It’s mid January which means most of us are preparing to abandon our weight loss resolutions for the new year.  To help you resolve to stick to your plan, we are sharing delicious soup recipes that make a great lunch or dinner without breaking the calorie bank.  Besides, did you know that January is National Soup Month?

Each of these soups is hearty and filling and you’ll never guess that they have less than 250 calories per serving.  An added benefit to these recipes is that each of them costs about one dollar per serving.  These soups are not only good for your figure, they’re good for your wallet, too.

Every one of these 11 soups under 250 calories is loaded with flavor and will save you from needing to eat  meals from cardboard boxes in order to achieve your weight loss goals.

Though Baker’s Man’s favorite soup is the post in the number one spot, the soups are presented in the order in which they were published on this blog.  He would like to believe that the reason it holds that position is because it’s his favorite.  He was very surprised to learn that it contained less than 250 calories per serving.  Of course, adding a bread bowl raises the calorie count quite a bit.

Clam Chowder from Food Storage Items

Clam Chowder from Food Storage Items  starts with a bag of dehydrated potato soup, and with only 4 other ingredients, it’s quick to prepare and very economical, too.  The total cost for the ingredients for this soup is $7.02 which works out to about 88 cents per serving.  That’s cheaper than canned clam chowder, and this recipe is almost as simple.   The calorie count for a serving of this clam chowder without a bread bowl is 217 calories.

Tomato Soup with Lentils

Tomato Soup with Lentils  is a vegan recipe that is simple to prepare and loaded with flavor.   This soup costs $5.90 for 8 servings and weighs in at 213 calories per serving including a tablespoon of creme fraiche on the top. (Use cashew Creme Fraiche to keep this vegan.)   What’s impressive is that this kid friendly soup contains 9 grams of protein in each serving.

Mom’s Albondigas Soup

Mom’s Albondigas Soup  is one of my favorite soups that my mother used to make.  It’s a bit more time consuming than some of the other soups in this list because you have to roll all of the meatballs and drop them into the hot soup, but this extra work is completely worth it.  This soup is amazing.  Loaded with rich flavor, this soup has only 206 calories per serving, and the entire pot of soup only costs $9.62 for 10 servings.  That’s less than $1 per serving.   Did I mention  that it’s loaded with meatballs?

Garden Vegetable Soup

Garden Vegetable Soup  is loaded with vegetables and extremely low in calories.  It’s filling and satisfying without adding to your waist line.  This recipe contains only 133 calories for 1/4th of this pot of soup, and is loaded with vitamins and minerals from all of the veggies that are floating around in the broth.    The cost for a large bowl of this soup is $1.08.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup  is one of those soups that I am completely addicted to, and it only has 221 calories per serving, sot that’s great.  Unfortunately, I’m addicted to it topped with tortilla chips and shredded cheese which adds about another 100 to 150 calories to the bowl depending on how many chips and how much cheese you add.

In my mind, the extra calories are completely worth it.  This bowl of soup is all that I need to feel completely satisfied.   The total cost of this recipe is $5.55, not including cheese and chips.  This works out to about ninety-three cents for a generous 1 1/2 cup serving of soup.

Mexican Style Turkey Soup

Mexican Style Turkey Soup  is only one of many variations on turkey soup that I make using the broth that I make from the turkey carcass after Thanksgiving dinner.  This soup is sort of a creative cross between a caldo de pavo and a turkey posole.  This soup is simple, delicious, and loaded with veggies and at only 137 calories for a generous two cup serving, you can even have it with a quesadilla on the side without breaking the calorie bank.  This recipe costs between $6.35 and $9.83 depending whether you make your own homemade broth or if you have to purchase it.   This means it’s between $0.80 and $1.23 per serving, so it won’t break your budget, either.

Split Pea Soup

Split Pea Soup was a staple in my mother’s house when we were growing up.  She often made this simple recipe because it’s very economical, but she would also make many variations on this soup, adding ham, bacon, or even cream, on occasion.  A single serving of this vegan soup has only 206 calories but supplies 14 grams of protein and 15 grams of fiber.  The best part of this soup is that it only costs $1.79 for the entire recipe.  That’s less than the cost of two cans of pea soup, and this tastes even better.

Minestrone Soup

Minestrone Soup is usually made with some sort of pasta, but our friend, Donna developed a gluten allergy a few years ago.  In the early days, I didn’t know about gluten free pasta, so when I prepared some soup for her, I simply added potatoes in place of pasta.  The resultant soup is warm and satisfying.  It’s also gluten free and vegan.  It’s delicious served with some crusty bread (gluten free if needed) for a complete meal, or makes a great appetizer for an Italian themed meal.  The total cost for this recipe is only $5.96, and though it’s only 208 calories per serving, each serving contains 8 grams of protein.

Vegetable Beef Soup

Vegetable Beef Soup tastes so much better when you make it yourself.  This is even true when you make it from a variety of other canned ingredients as in this recipe.  If you’re watching the amount of sodium in you diet, do as we did and use reduced sodium canned products or those with no added salt.  We found many of these on sale at our local grocery store which helped to keep the price down.  A one cup serving of this soup is 174 calories, and the total cost of the recipe was only $7.17 which works out to about $0.90 per serving.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Chicken Enchilada Soup is an entirely canned food version of a recipe that can be found on Hungry Girl.  This has become one of my favorite low calorie recipes whenever I am trying to lose weight because it’s loaded with flavor.  The addition of pumpkin to the recipe also adds a great deal of fiber and nutrients.   The cost of the recipe is $7.98 or $1.00 per serving, and it contains only 150 calories per cup full of soup.

Chicken Enchilada Soup with Black Beans and Corn

Chicken Enchilada Soup  with Black Beans and Corn is a variation on the Chicken Enchilada Soup above.  I love that soup, but I wanted to make it heartier by adding more vegetables and by adding some black beans to add additional protein without significantly increasing the calorie count.   The additions increased the protein count to 14 grams while only increasing the calories to 166 for a 1 1/2 cup serving of this soup without additional toppings.  That means adding the addition chips and cheese won’t make this soup too fattening.  The total cost of this recipe without chips and cheese is $8.64 or $1.08 per serving.

That brings us to the end of our list of eleven soups under 250 calories.  I love all of these soups, but I must confess that, for the most part, I wasn’t trying to create a “diet” soup.  Instead, I was trying to create a soup that was warm, hearty, and satisfying while using the foods that I had available to me at the time.  These soups prove that it’s possible to cut calories without sacrificing flavor.

What do you think of these eleven soups under 250 calories?  Which one do you think would be your favorite?  Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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