Nothing beats a cold winter’s evening with a good book and a piping hot bowl of soup. Soup is considered by many as a healthy dish, and for many, it even acts as a meal replacement, as it contains everything from mixed vegetables and a satiating texture that will help you feel full for a long time. One such popular soup is Veg Manchurian soup, and given that it’s a soup, albeit an Indo-Chinese one, it’s easy to be led to believe that it is healthy. Do not get confused with a Manchurian soup and a homemade vegetable or chicken soup, as the one made at home is not just fresh, but is extremely nutritious. If you are unable to figure out how many calories a single bowl of Veg Manchurian soup contains, then today’s blog is just for you.
Ingredients: As always, we analyse the ingredients first, and one that ranks high on the ingredients list is soy sauce. Now we aren’t against the use of soya products, but one quick glance at the ingredients list will tell you that the soy sauce sold in India is just caramelised sugar. The soup also contains a vegetable broth, which can be considered healthy, but why would you not want to include the healthy vegetables in the dish is beyond us. Monosodium glutamate is another ingredient, which is used as a flavouring agent and is commonly referred to as AginoMoto in India. It is linked to several health conditions such as elevated blood pressure, migraine headaches and other health issues. Cornstarch is used to thicken the soup and it is then topped with crispy-fried noodles to make the dish more palete friendly. Other ingredients include ginger, garlic, and spring onion, all of which are low in calories.
Carbohydrates: Each bowl of Veg Manchurian soup contains 42 grams of carbohydrates, or 168 kcal. While some of this comes from vegetables such as French beans, carrots and cabbage, subject to the restaurant's using it, a majority of it comes from the imitation soya sauce, tomato ketchup, chilli sauce and . Further, a cornstarch slurry is added to give the soup some body and thickness, and it is brought to a boil.
Fats: Not all fats are unhealthy, and if you are unsure about which cooking oils are good for you, then we’ve compiled an entire blog for you to decide. You can find that blog here. Getting back to the Veg Manchurian soup, each bowl contains 8 grams of fat or 72 kcal, and while this may not seem like a lot, all of this oil is either palm oil or vegetable oil that has been previously used to fry the same crispy noodles as garnish.
Protein: As always, the most important of the three macronutrients Protein comes in at a mere 5 grams or 20 kcal. While this may vary, if you order the chicken variant of Manchurian soup, you will get a bit more protein. However, in today's vegetarian variant, you get 5 grams of incomplete protein, which means that your body cannot utilise this protein efficiently for recovery and muscle-building.
A healthier option would be to look at a home-made vegetable or chicken soup that is prepared freshly, where the vegetables aren’t overcooked, using just a dash of soya sauce, skipping out on MSG and preparing utilising healthy fats and oils instead.
So there you go, another Know Your Calories blog covered for you. Do keep following us for more interesting updates.
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