A bowl of clear low-fat chicken and vegetable soup with carrot, celery and parsley on a wooden table

Healing Chicken and Vegetable Soup

By /

The most useful recipe in the book. Make a large batch and eat it for three days. The broth rehydrates you, the chicken gives you protein, and the vegetables are soft enough to digest without much effort. This is Tier 1 food: what you can eat in your first weeks home from hospital, or during a flare.

Serves 4 · Prep 15m · Cook 45m · about 3g fat / 185 kcal per serving

Why this is the first thing I cook after a flare

One bowl costs about 3g of fat. In the strict early phase my fat budget was 20 to 30g for the whole day, so this soup barely dents it. I can eat it again at the next meal without doing math.

Everything in the pot is peeled and cooked soft, so digestion takes little work. And it’s garlic powder on purpose: fresh garlic is on my never list, the powder I tolerate. That tolerance is personal, so test yours carefully.

Phase & care: Phase 1, first weeks home or flare days. Skim the broth well. Fat you skim is fat you don’t count.

Ingredients

  • 400g skinless chicken breast (about 14 oz)
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
  • 2 stalks celery, sliced
  • 1 medium zucchini, peeled and diced
  • 1 medium parsnip, peeled and diced
  • 1 small onion, peeled and quartered
  • 1.5L water or unsalted chicken broth, fat skimmed (about 6 cups)
  • 1 tsp dried garlic powder
  • Small bunch fresh parsley
  • Salt to taste

Method

  1. Place the chicken breast whole into a large pot. Cover with water or broth.
  2. Bring to a boil. Skim any foam from the surface.
  3. Add onion, carrot, parsnip and celery. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer.
  4. Cook 30 minutes, then remove the chicken and set aside to cool slightly.
  5. Add zucchini and garlic powder. Simmer another 10 minutes.
  6. Shred the chicken with two forks. Return it to the pot.
  7. Add fresh parsley. Season with salt. Serve hot.

Per serving: approx. 185 kcal · 3g fat.

Phase note: use fat-skimmed broth only. If using water, you are making the broth as you cook, just skim the surface well.

More like this

Try the oatmeal with banana and cinnamon for breakfast or the steamed cod with lemon and dill for dinner. The full system, with the fat budget in grams and all 75 recipes, is in the book.

Not medical advice. This recipe reflects one patient’s low-fat approach grounded in published guidance. Fat tolerance is individual. Check with your own healthcare team before changing your diet.

Scroll to Top