HELP with figuring serving size from recipes

purplebohemian
purplebohemian Posts: 32
in Food and Nutrition
I have a recipe for Red Lentil and Vegetable Soup and I am trying to figure out how much each serving size is supposed to be (approximately). The recipe tells me that there are 4 main-dish servings, but I would prefer an actual amount to go by. I've been researching online on how to figure it out, such as using measuring cups to serve the food to see how many you get. I didn't know if there was an easier way such as an online calculator where you can type in your recipe, and it figures everything out for you. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Replies

  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
    This is where a kitchen scale comes in super handy. Put an empty bowl on the scale, hit "tare" (aka zero it out), dump in the soup and divide the weight by 4.

    Digital scales are pretty cheap and come in handy. I haven't counted calories in ages but still use my scale almost daily, especially to weigh out high calorie stuff that I want to keep the portion in check (peanut butter, nuts, etc.).
  • notnikkisixx
    notnikkisixx Posts: 375 Member
    MFP actually has a recipe calculator, it is super helpful!

    Like the other poster said, weigh the full amount and then divide by 4.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    With soups it's kind of hard because you have to either measure or weight it to figure out how much a serving is. With casseroles or even some stove top meals, it's a bit easier because you can actually divide up the whole recipe before serving it.

    When I do soups, I make note of how many of our bowls it fills and go by that amount every other time I make it.
  • QuilterInVA
    QuilterInVA Posts: 672 Member
    Every one gets a different serving size on soup recipes even using the same recipe depending on how much they cooked it at what temperature. You have to measure it and then divide by the number of servings.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Ideally you have to weigh the whole thing and measure a 4th, or whatever you want the serving to be.

    Honestly though, I did a taco soup last month... and it was so much of it, there's no way it would have fit on the scale, and I wasn't going to spend one hour measuring it cup by cup, so I just totally guessed.
  • purplebohemian
    purplebohemian Posts: 32

    Honestly though, I did a taco soup last month... and it was so much of it, there's no way it would have fit on the scale, and I wasn't going to spend one hour measuring it cup by cup, so I just totally guessed.

    Totally understand! I have been guessing myself and assuming that I've been eating one serving, but it is probably less because I've already eaten two "servings" in the past few days, and there is still so much left. It makes me really wonder how big the actual serving size is. Oh, well! :)

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