3-Week Meal-Prep Soup Challenge

Ready to get back into a routine and start meal-prepping? This soup challenge is great to focus on healthy eating habits after the holidays and to incorporate more vegan and plant-based meals into your diet. By joining the challenge and you'll cook 3 soups for the week that are filling, nutritious and so damn delicious! We'll make soups a fun dish you look forward to! 

Jump to:

• Why you'll love this challenge
• How does it work?
• Elo's meal-prepping tips
• Soup essentials and tools you'll need
• Notes about vegetable broth
• Soup Challenge Week 1
• Soup Challenge Week 2
• Soup Challenge Week 3
• How to support Cooking With Elo

Why you'll love this challenge

• This challenge is a great way to get back into (or create) a routine of healthy eating habits.
• You'll have at least 3 nutritious and filling meals a week that are packed with vegetables.
• You'll learn how to meal-prep if you've never tried it.
• We'll show you that soups can be fun and delicious. None of these soups are boring or taste bland.
• All the recipes are easy to make and come with step-by-step pictures.

How does it work?

Once you join the challenge (you can register here), you'll receive a confirmation email.

During the next 3 weeks, you'll choose 1 prep-day on which you will prepare 3 soups for the week.

On Thursdays, you'll receive the 3 soup recipes and a grocery list per email. This leaves you 4 days to go grocery shopping and make the soups.

During the week you'll have 12 servings of soup that you can eat for lunch or dinner. That would be 3 meals for a family of four, 6 meals for a couple and 12 meals if you're alone. Feel free to freeze some servings if that's too much.

There are no rules

If you don't like meal-prepping, you can make the soup during the week and serve it right away.

If you don't feel like eating 3 soups a week, you can make the recipes you find most appealing and not all 9 of them.

You can make this challenge for longer or less than 3 weeks. For example, you could make 1 recipe per week during 9 weeks.

Elo's meal-prepping tips

• Chose a prep day that works for you. If you have your weekends off, you can meal-prep on the weekend. If you have an afternoon off during the week, that could be your prep day.
• Check your pantry before you go grocery shopping to avoid buying products your already have.
• Read the whole recipe first (including the notes). It will save you time while cooking.
• Place all the ingredients for each recipe on your kitchen table or countertop. That way you won't have to open your fridge and run to the pantry all the time.
• Choose your favorite meal-prepping technique.
  1. Make one recipe at a time: chop, cook and clean each recipe one after the other. That means that you only start with the second soup recipe once the first one is simmering.
  2. Proceed one step at a time: chop the vegetables for all the recipes first, then start cooking each recipe one after the other, the clean everything.

Soup essentials and tools you'll need

1. A vegetable peeler.
2. A large cutting board.
3. A sharp knife.
4. Measuring cups and spoons or a kitchen scale.
5. A large pot, preferably with a heavy bottom (e.g., stockpot, Dutch oven).
6. A stick blender.
7. Clean, air-tight containers.

Notes about vegetable broth

Vegetable broth is an ingredient that is used in every single soup recipe. It's really important because it deepens the flavors and intensifies the soup. Here are several options and alternatives.

Homemade vegetable broth: if time allows, you can make your own vegetable broth. Simply sauté onions, carrots and celery in olive oil. Cover with water and add a bouquet garni. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for up to 2 hours over low-medium heat, then strain. You can also make vegetable broth from scraps, however, it will be weaker in taste. Only use it for soups that will be blended with other vegetables and spices that have rich flavors(e.g., red pepper lentil soup, Moroccan pumpkin soup).

Jarred or boxed vegetable broth: a great alternative to homemade vegetable broth is jarred or boxed broth. Choose qualitative vegetable broth for soups that are bouillon-based, such as this gnocchi soup or vegan cream of chicken soup. If you have some leftover broth, freeze 1-cup (250 ml) portions.

Frozen vegetable broth: some grocery stores keep the vegetable broth in the frozen foods sections. The disadvantage is that you have to use all the broth once it's thawed. Another disadvantage is that you can't freeze soups that contain defrosted ingredients.

Bouillon powder (our favorite): the most convenient and cheapest vegetable broth option is probably bouillon powder. All you need to do is add the right amount of bouillon powder to the required amount of water. If choosing this option, try to find bouillon powder with relatively clean ingredients (free from additives, sugar, yeast and natural flavorings)

Bouillon cubes: bouillon cubes are similar to bouillon powder. They are very convenient as you can keep them in your pantry. As for bouillon powder, try to find brands with clean ingredients.

Soup Challenge Week 1

Vegan Gnocchi Soup

Broccoli and almond soup

Sweet potato and tomato soup

Alternative: silky smooth butternut squash and zucchini soup

You'll receive the grocery list for week 1 via email if you sign up for the challenge. If you didn't receive an email, make sure to check your promotions or spam folder. If you find the email in there, drag it to your main inbox to prevent this from happening again.

Soup Challenge Week 2

Vegan cream of chicken soup

3-ingredient butternut squash soup in a Vitamix

Red pepper and lentil soup

Alternative: Hokkaido pumpkin soup with parsnip

You'll receive the grocery list for week 2 via email if you sign up for the challenge. If you didn't receive an email, make sure to check your promotions or spam folder. If you find the email in there, drag it to your main inbox to prevent this from happening again.

Soup Challenge Week 3

Thaï glass noodle soup

Vegan spinach soup with potatoes

Moroccan pumpkin soup

Alternative: sun-dried tomato cabbage soup

You'll receive the grocery list for week 3 via email if you sign up for the challenge. If you didn't receive an email, make sure to check your promotions or spam folder. If you find the email in there, drag it to your main inbox to prevent this from happening again.

How to support Cooking With Elo

If you made several or all of these recipes, please leave a star rating and a comment under the respective recipes. Your feedback makes my day and helps me improve the recipes! It also helps other readers find my recipes on Google.

Share the challenge with your friends and family. If you know someone that is on a vegan, dairy-free or gluten-free diet, let them know about these soup recipes!