Trying to work out calories in home made soup.

jackogara
jackogara Posts: 2 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have made 3 soups after buying a load of stuff from Costco.

First one is Leek and Potato.
  • 400g Leek
  • 430g Potato
  • 1.2L of stock, equals 130 calories
  • 50g of Butter (did not want to use this much).
This makes around 7 portions at around 160 calories per portion?
The butter makes up 1/3 of the calories.

Second is carrot and coriander.
  • 1/2 Onion
  • 250g Potato
  • 525g Carrot
  • 1.2L of stock, equals 130 calories
This makes around 7 portions at around 80 calories per portion?

Third is Vegetable.
  • Can of organic peeled tomatoes ~ 100 calories
  • 550g Potato
  • 420g Carrot
  • 20g Garlic
  • 210g Mushrooms (Chestnut)
  • 200g Garden Peas
  • 1.2L of stock, equals 130 calories
This makes around 7 portions at around 140 calories per portion?


Is my math good on this?
MFP puts the veg soup at around 115.
Used https://www.nutritionix.com/ to get the calories.

Replies

  • Dailly13
    Dailly13 Posts: 190 Member
    I'm keeping my eye on this cause I'm never sure about calories in homemade soup
  • brittanystebbins95
    brittanystebbins95 Posts: 567 Member
    The only thing with batch making soup is you're never guaranteed to get the same amount of each ingredient in each serving. So the calories in each serving may actually vary. If you're the only one eating it, though, it will balance itself out.
  • Iwantahealthierme30
    Iwantahealthierme30 Posts: 293 Member
    put the recipe in and you can make your own food entry
  • jackogara
    jackogara Posts: 2 Member
    brittanystebbins95 wrote: »
    The only thing with batch making soup is you're never guaranteed to get the same amount of each ingredient in each serving. So the calories in each serving may actually vary. If you're the only one eating it, though, it will balance itself out.

    I blitz (leek & potato and the Carrot & coriander) and measure out each portion so they are near identical.
    I am the only one eating them so it does average out over the 2-3 weeks these will last.
    Iwantahealthierme30 wrote: »
    put the recipe in and you can make your own food entry

    I have done and for the veg soup it came in at 115k per portion. Using nutritionix.com I am getting 160k per portion.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,981 Member
    I make soup quite often.

    I use the recipe builder and weigh the total batch of soup ( I weigh empty pot before and then weigh pot full of soup to do this)
    Then I divide amount into lots of 100g - for example if total weighs 2700 I call it 27 serves. ( I round it off to the nearest 100 to do this, so real weight might be say, 2723)
    Then measure each portion and log it as 4.5 serves or whatever.


    Sure, each serve might be slightly different percentage of ingredients but since all my soups are blended with hand held blender at the end, these differences will be minimal.
    Same would be so with most recipes but evens out.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    Put an etching on the inside of your soup pot for cups at the 4, 8 12 and 16 marks and then add up the calories of everything that goes in and divide by the number of cups you ended up with.
  • bluej85
    bluej85 Posts: 16 Member
    I've wondered about calculating things like this too. The total is easy and I know it does all even out, but aside from portioning it into individual servings in more than half a dozen containers I don't know how to log it from meal to meal. And even if I did that it wouldn't be exact.

    ...I guess blending it as suggested would solve that issue, but I could never eat soup that way, it'd be like eating baby food.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    bluej85 wrote: »
    I've wondered about calculating things like this too. The total is easy and I know it does all even out, but aside from portioning it into individual servings in more than half a dozen containers I don't know how to log it from meal to meal. And even if I did that it wouldn't be exact.

    ...I guess blending it as suggested would solve that issue, but I could never eat soup that way, it'd be like eating baby food.

    One thing to keep in mind is that food safety guidelines are already to chill in smaller containers, as they reach a safe temperature quicker in the fridge. I typically portion my leftovers into small containers. Not only is it safer, it's also very easy when it comes time to eat -- I can just grab my serving.

    Do I think it's necessary to be successful counting calories? No.
  • KrissFlavored
    KrissFlavored Posts: 327 Member
    When I make batch things I just log each ingredient into my food diary and then when I get the grand total, I decide how many portions I would like to have.. I divide by 4 if I start with 4 and if that seems like too many calories for my daily calorie amount, I'll divide by 5.. then once I decide, I'll portion it out into that many bowls or containers. I dont bother to make sure everything is the same weight because as long as I log it 5 times, same calories, I'm accounting for those calories

    Same with meats, if I have a pack of 4 chicken breasts, I just take the total weight on the sticker or weigh them and then divide the total by 4 and just log each piece as the same gram weight. I could log each piece as the weight they are.. but honestly for the maybe 40 or 50 calories or less it might vary between one piece to the other, I cant be bothered to fuss over it, as long as i account for the entire raw weight, I'm fine.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    Use the recipe builder

    I set my serving size to total weight divided by 10g (so if it’s 200g; I set it to 20 servibgs)

    I use a larger container and then just weigh out what I want

    So if I measure out 30g; I log as 3 servings
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,981 Member
    bluej85 wrote: »
    I've wondered about calculating things like this too. The total is easy and I know it does all even out, but aside from portioning it into individual servings in more than half a dozen containers I don't know how to log it from meal to meal. And even if I did that it wouldn't be exact.

    ...I guess blending it as suggested would solve that issue, but I could never eat soup that way, it'd be like eating baby food.

    Even if it isnt a blended soup - so it has chunky pieces of meat/veg instead - I would still consider the differences in each serving to be minimal and not worth worrying about.

    So, sure, one serve might get bit more chunks or different percentages of each ingredient than others - but not to a degree worth mattering IMO.
    and that isnt a feature of soups anyway - same would go for any recipe - be it stew, salad, fritters, dessert etc

    I'm not following your point about portioning it into individual containers - don't you have to do that anyway? either for storage or when you are eating it, like into a mug/bowl?? - you are not eating the soup out of the cooking pot,are you?

    I just weigh total and then weigh it in my bowl/mug when I dish it out - same as I do for any other food.

    Doesnt matter if that is directly from cooking pot or a day or so later from leftovers container in fridge.

  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,467 Member
    edited May 2020
    Possible reasons MFP and nutritionix would differ—
    One uses cooked weight and one uses raw weight for a particular item.
    They use different varieties, Yukon gold potatoes vs. russet potatoes.
    MFP entries are not always completely accurate. I’m not familiar with Nutrionix, so not sure if they are or not.

    Can you figure out which particular item is different, then try to figure out which is the right item?
    MFP does the math for you. You just have to get the right entries. Does nutritionix?
  • louthlass
    louthlass Posts: 10 Member
    I had too many carrots in my fridge so decided to make carrot, lentil & potato soup.
    It's a bit of a faff to weigh the ingredients but it's quite straightforward.
    I've restarted my 5:2 at the same time and soup is perfect for a "fast" day 😊
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,389 Member
    I don't have so many repeat recipes, thus I never really use the recipe builder. When I cook a soup/curry/etc or something like that I just log the total calories for every ingredient in my diary under 'dinner' and adjust the amount of ingredients during cooking to get about 550-600 calories per portion including rice/bread/other things. I usually eat the first portion on that evening, thus the whole pot is under 'dinner' in my diary. Then divide it up by weight and put all additional portions into the freezer and divide the calories in my diary by number of portions. Sure, some portions will have a few extra calories, but as only I eat this meal it will eventually even out. I have a tiny whiteboard book on my worktop where I note down what meals are in the freezer and at what date I ate it first. Then I can simple go to that date in my diary and copy the nutritional info when I eat it next. Plus I also write down what else is in the freezer, make notes on what I want to cook at a certain time etc.

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