Alright, let’s talk about these fasting soups. I sorta stumbled into this whole thing, wasn’t really planning it. Heard some folks talking about fasting, figured maybe I’d try it for a bit, you know, clean out the system or whatever. But just water? Nah, that sounded rough. Then someone mentioned soups you could have, like really basic ones. Sounded a bit better than plain water, so I thought, okay, let’s give it a shot.
First few tries were… well, pretty sad. I basically just boiled some water and threw in a bouillon cube. Tasted like salty dishwater. Didn’t feel like much of a meal, obviously, and I was still thinking about actual food like crazy. It wasn’t really cutting it. I realized pretty fast that if this was gonna work, I needed something slightly more interesting, but still sticking to the ‘fasting’ idea – like, super low calorie, no chunks, easy on the digestion.
Figuring Stuff Out
So, I started messing around in the kitchen. Got myself a bunch of veggies – celery, zucchini, a bit of onion, garlic, carrots, stuff like that. The key thing I learned was don’t go overboard. Keep it simple.
My basic process became something like this:
- Chop up a few veggies. Not too much, just for flavor. Onion and garlic are good starters. Celery adds a nice background taste.
- Throw ’em in a pot with a tiny bit of olive oil, just sweat them down a bit. Not really browning them, just softening.
- Add water or a very light, unsalted vegetable broth. Like, lots of water.
- Let it simmer for a good while. Half hour, maybe 45 minutes? Until everything is super soft.
- Here’s the important part for me: I’d often strain out the veggies. Sometimes I’d blend just a tiny bit back in if I wanted it slightly less thin, but mostly, I wanted the flavored broth. Other times, I’d blend the whole thing super smooth, depending on how I felt. An immersion blender became my best friend here.
- Seasoning was tricky. Salt, obviously, but not too much. A bit of pepper. Sometimes some herbs like parsley or thyme, but dried ones usually, just simmered in the broth. Fresh herbs felt like too much ‘food’.
My Go-To Simple Broth Thing
Honestly, my most frequent one ended up being dead simple.
Sweat half an onion, chopped small, and maybe one clove of garlic, minced. Add like 2 stalks of celery, chopped. Let that soften for 5 mins. Then pour in maybe 6-8 cups of water. Pinch of salt, few peppercorns. Let it simmer gently for like 30-40 minutes. Then I just strain it. That’s it. It’s thin, yeah, but it has flavor. It feels like you’re having something, not just hot water. It really helped me get through those first few fasting days.
Another one I did sometimes was a blended zucchini soup. Same start: onion, garlic. Then add chopped zucchini, water, salt, pepper. Simmer till soft. Then blend the heck out of it until it’s smooth. It’s still super light, barely any calories, but feels a bit more substantial because it’s creamy-ish, even without cream.
Big lesson learned: Keep it basic. The point isn’t a gourmet soup, it’s just getting some flavor and warm liquid in you while keeping calories super low. Don’t overthink it. It’s weird, focusing so much on making something taste like less. Took some getting used to, mentally. It’s not like regular cooking where you’re always trying to add more flavor, more richness. This was the opposite. Felt kinda backward at first, but I got the hang of it.
Anyway, that was my little adventure into fasting soups. Nothing fancy, just figuring out what worked through trial and error. Mostly error at the start, if I’m being honest. But yeah, got there in the end. Made the whole fasting experience a bit more bearable for me.
