Soup doesn't fill me up!
Every time I post a soup meal recipe, without exception, someone will always comment, "Soup doesn't fill me up!", which results in an epic pillow-scream so loud that it rattles windows.
It makes me so frustrated I grab my gnome Hans and shake him like a rag doll as I scream "MAKE THEM THINK, HANS! MAKE THEM THINK!" Why might it be that I say that soup makes a great meal for a bodybuilder but yet their experience is that soup doesn't fill them up? What is soup anyway? It's vegetables, beans, maybe some meat, and water. You can make soup really, really cheap by simply adding tons of water then using a thickener like flour or cornstarch to make it *look* thick and meaty. Maybe that is why their experience is that soup does not fill them up, because its commercially produced, profit maximized soup which is all water!
With that rant aside, please look at this pot of soup before I add any water and you will notice that the ingredients are all the way to the top. This pot contains 2 pounds dried peas, 2 pound carrots, and 3 pounds onions. It probably makes 8 meals for me. You can ask chatGPT for the macros on that if you are interested as I have not counted calories since cutting for my 2015 men's physique contest. I eat healthy minimally processed home cooked food like this meal which tastes good ... but not so good that I overeat it. If I notice I am drifting up in the bodyfat then I make small corrections in nutrition, lifestyle, or both.
As an aside, you don't really need a recipe for this as quantities really don't matter all that much. The spices are granulated garlic, black pepper, sage, rosemary, and salt. If you want more flavor then throw in a bouillon cube. As far as cooking time in the crockpot, its really not that critical just cook till everything turns to mush. I usually cook it 8 hours when I am sleeping.
There's good data to support this approach. I have one such example that I witnessed.
Many years ago a unit of the British army reserve did an experiment on how to keep soldiers satisfied for longer between meals, while performing physical tasks. They prepared a basic meal of potato, carrots, peas and two rashers of bacon. Half the troops got this served, as cooked, on a plate. The other half had their food tipped into a blender, turned into a thick mush, and served in a bowl (this group had no complaints about loss of flavour or texture and said afterwards they quite liked the blended food mush).
The result: the blended food mush group reported feeling satisfied and "full" for a couple of hours longer than the unblended group, while performing all the same physical tasks.
Conclusion: it was the surface area principle. The blended food filled the stomach more thoroughly and suppressed feelings of hunger more effectively, because of this. The unblended food was present in the stomach in larger, more discrete chunks that had gaps around and between them, allowing the stomach fluids to flow and feelings of hunger to be stimulated.
Suggestion: if you want to stay sated for longer and not crave food as often, blend it into baby food mush and eat it out of a bowl! ;-)
I've always been unclear about the dividing line between 'soup' and 'stew'. I think the above may qualify as a stew because of the length of time it's cooked for, but I'm generally inclined to call thick, especially meaty, dishes a stew. But then you've also got goulash (I grew up on goulash thanks to some Cajun heritage).
Ah, a subject very close to my food loving heart. A bowl of hearty, nutrient-dense soup is just about the most satisfying experience I know. If you pair it with a glass of something ice cold like lemon water, you'll get up from the table feeling like you've just polished off a holiday feast. Sorry for those who can't relate.