Healthy Soup Recipes for Special Diet

Quick to prepare, this Asian-style noodle soup has all the makings of a one-pot meal. To punch up the heat, add a dab of chile-garlic sauce.

“Tortilla soup has a place, I feel, in practically every collection of Mexican recipes,” says Rick Bayless. This is a vegetarian version of the classic soup, usually made with chicken. Earthy dark pasilla chile flavors the soul-satisfying broth. (Recipe adapted from Rick Bayless.)

Just a touch of brown sugar sweetens this simple soup that gets its creaminess from pureed squash and fat-free evaporated milk.

Carrots, baby sweet peas, and green onions are added to the traditional egg drop soup in this recipe.

This luscious and healthy cream of carrot soup comes together with just 15 minutes of active time, thanks to the Instant Pot (or any other pressure cooker). For an even easier dish, use an immersion blender to puree the soup--you'll only have the Instant Pot insert to clean after cooking. Serve this soup as a starter for a holiday meal or with crusty bread and a salad for dinner any night.

Roasting butternut squash with herbs and garlic gives this healthy soup a more complex flavor. A bit of maple syrup adds sweetness, while a splash of apple-cider vinegar brightens up the flavors. This easy recipe requires just 15 minutes of active prep time, but you can cut down on that even more by buying precut squash. Serve with bread and a salad for a light supper, or as a starter for a holiday meal.

Use your Instant Pot--or any other pressure cooker--to whip up this healthy butternut squash soup. Anjou pears add sweetness, while the soup gets creaminess and a wonderful flavor from light coconut milk, and a bright, fresh kick from ginger, cilantro and lime. Finishing the soup with whole-milk yogurt adds a nice richness, but you can skip it to keep the soup vegan. (Allow the soup to cool slightly before stirring in the yogurt so it doesn't curdle.) This soup would be equally delicious chilled.

Rice is used as a thickener in this lusciously creamy (but cream-free) healthy butternut squash bisque. This soup is very easy to prepare, but you can make it even easier by buying precut butternut squash rather than cutting it up yourself. Serve the soup as a light entree with crusty bread and a salad, or as a starter for a holiday meal.

This easy gazpacho recipe is a great way to use less-than-beautiful-but-still-great-tasting tomatoes since they get whirled up in a food processor. The chilled soup is served here with Mexican sour gherkins--bite-size cucumbers that look like mini watermelons and have a slightly sour flavor. Look for them at your farmers' market.

This healthy vegetable soup is a great way to repurpose leftovers. The recipe calls for leftovers from two other recipes--Roasted Butternut Squash & Root Vegetables and the chicken from Chicken Kebabs with Warm Cabbage-Apple Slaw (see Associated Recipes). With the help of those two recipes, this soup come together in less than 15 minutes for a fast and delicious meal. The coconut milk broth would work well with other vegetables and with chickpeas for a vegetarian version.

You can use any kind of fish to make this fish and corn chowder, but try to avoid full-flavored varieties like mackerel or bluefish unless it's straight off the boat or it'll overwhelm the soup. "When you're staring down a new type of fish, chowder is a foolproof preparation," chef Mike Lata says, so try this recipe with different kinds of fish.

Use your crock pot all year with this healthy slow-cooker chicken soup recipe with fresh spring ingredients. Adding the asparagus and peas to the slow cooker for the last 20 minutes of cooking and leaving the lid off ensures that the vegetables stay bright green and are perfectly done without getting mushy.

Take advantage of local fresh corn and whip up this 40-minute Mexican-inspired summer soup recipe. It's topped with creamy avocado slices and crispy corn tortillas, but you can make it next-level by adding a dollop of nonfat plain yogurt, a bit of grated Cheddar, and/or chopped scallions.

To keep fat and calories down, this crabmeat soup is made with fat-free half-and-half, but it's still super rich and creamy. If you don't have time to make the fish stock, substitute 3 cups of reduced-sodium chicken broth.

In this flavorful soup recipe, sweet potatoes simmer in a quick coconut curry, resulting in a creamy, thick broth punctuated by notes of garlic and ginger. We love peanuts for their inexpensive price and versatile flavor. They're also a great source of protein--1 ounce has 7 grams.

This 3-ingredient easy soup recipe is perfect for a satisfying and healthy afternoon snack or a quick lunch.

This set-it-and-forget-it slow-cooker recipe simmers away all day so you come home to a warm and healthy dinner the whole family will love. Using bone-in chicken is the key to making rich soup without adding broth.

Gazpacho soup is a warm weather favorite and this one adds crab to the traditional ingredients of tomato, onion, cucumber, and bell pepper, making it higher in protein while keeping it low in fat.

Whether you have celiac disease or are just watching your gluten intake, you'll love this easy Asian-inspired bowl recipe. Chunks of sesame chicken, crisp-tender vegetables, and rice noodles are combined in broth with an orange and soy flavor that's simply out of this world.

Sweet strawberries are paired with aromatic lemon thyme in this beautiful chilled soup recipe that's perfect for special occasions.

Instead of adding flour to thicken this soup, cooked tender peas take a whirl in the blender and do the job themselves. Buttermilk adds a gentle tang and dill really brings out the incredible flavor in this simple 30-minute soup recipe.

Take a basic corn chowder recipe, add potatoes, jalapeños, and oysters and what do you get? A hearty 45-minute soup that will have people begging for seconds.

Roasting the corn and peppers in the oven before adding them to the soup adds intense flavor to this chowder recipe. Before serving, blend half of the soup to ensure a thicker base.

Make this heart-healthy main-dish white bean and sausage soup with fresh onions. If you're really pressed for time, look for frozen chopped onions, which can be added to soups and stews in seconds.