3 seasonal soups for your Lunchbox

Lunch at work: beyond the usual menu

Why settle for a quick sandwich if, with a few simple steps, we can secure a genuine and healthy meal to take to work? After all, a balanced diet is the basis of the overall well-being of the body and varying the dishes makes the lunch break even more enjoyable.

Just prepare your meals in advance to be consumed at work and equip yourself with the most suitable tools to store and transport them safely: even better if these accessories give us the opportunity to heat the contents and enjoy our lunch as if it were freshly prepared.

Healthy, homely appearance of the soup at work

Soup is the ultimate comfort food: perfect for lunch, dinner and even the next day at work. By preparing an extra portion, that's it: the soup nourishes, warms and satisfies just enough to feel satisfied and satisfied, without being weighed down and being able to resume work after a regenerating break.

A lunch based on warm soups, soft velvety or colorful minestrone, even with the addition of pasta or rice, represents the certainty of consuming dishes with known ingredients and controlled caloric intake.

In addition, it corresponds exactly to our tastes and is a practical meal, because it can be eaten at the desk, without leaving the workplace to reach a fast food or restaurant.

Three tasty seasonal soups to take with you to work

Minestrone with legumes and mushrooms

Mixed legumes are the simplest you can prepare, because they are already selected and packaged in bags: excellent for a soup, thanks to the mushrooms it will also have a delicious forest scent. The only precaution is to let the legumes soak to rehydrate for about 12 hours but, if we are in a hurry, we can also use canned pre-cooked ones.

After having browned a clove of garlic dressed in extra virgin olive oil, remove it and add the legumes, vegetable broth, a bay leaf, a teaspoon of tomato paste and, if desired, a pinch of ground red pepper.

Let the legumes cook over low heat for about 25/30 minutes, then add the fresh mushrooms (or dried, after having soaked them in fresh water) and continue cooking for another 5/10 minutes. This soup is excellent served with croutons but, to make it even more substantial, we can also add pasta or rice.

Black cabbage and zucchini soup

A traditional first course, healthy, nutritious and with a rustic flavor: the black cabbage soup becomes lighter with the addition of green or white courgettes. Just prepare a classic sauté (celery-carrot-onion), let it brown for a few minutes in EVO oil and add the cabbage leaves cut into strips, letting them simmer in a little vegetable broth, in a covered pot for about 15 minutes. Then, add the courgettes cut into rounds or cubes, season with salt and continue cooking for another 10 minutes.

At the end, a drizzle of raw EVO oil and, if desired, a grind of black pepper. The day after? It tastes even better!

Cream of "four seasons" potatoes

Perfect for a light winter dinner, it is a real passe-par-tout for any period of the year: just change the ingredients to add to the potatoes. We can use red squash in winter, carrots in spring, peppers in summer ... or even all these vegetables together, if you want.

The potatoes are cut into cubes and cooked in vegetable broth, along with other favorite vegetables and herbs, preferably in a high-sided saucepan: at the end of cooking, blend the vegetables using an immersion mixer. Add salt and a drizzle of raw EVO oil to the soup: it will be perfect accompanied by toasted croutons spread with cheese.

Tips for shopping

To enjoy a good soup in the office, just use reliable and functional tools, such as the lunch kit, a complete set for transporting food that also includes everything you need to consume them, including cutlery and the thermal bottle.

And if we want our lunch to be hot, the best ally will be an electric food warmer, even with a timer: just program the time when our soup will have to be heated and the device will do everything by itself.

In fact, it is sufficient to connect the food warmer to a normal electrical outlet: minimum consumption (only 40 watts of power), maximum efficiency and versatility. These precious accessories, in fact, can also work on the move, by connecting them to the vehicle's cigarette lighter.