Soup day: spring recipes for a healthy meal

Have you had breakfast? And what will you have for lunch? Is it an ordinary sandwich with coffee, fast food again or will you just look in the kitchen and grab something edible there? Today, April 5 is International Soup Day, and therefore, the day when you can take everything lying around in your refrigerator, and turn it into a delicious, nutritious, and most importantly, healthy meal.

From early childhood, we're told about the benefits of the first courses. And although nutritionists don't insist on the need to eat soups, it's difficult to disagree that soup is an ideal food. First, it's an all-season dish, and we can prepare it from almost anything. Second, the soup can be served hot or cold. Third, we can eat it not only for lunch but also in the evening and for breakfast; it can be the first, main course and even dessert.

In Ukraine, the first course was, until recently, a mandatory component of a full dinner. No lunch in kindergartens, schools, and canteens for adults was complete without "hot" food. And at home, Ukrainians tried to ensure the constant presence of soup or borscht in the diet of the entire family. Chicken broths were used to treat patients with colds and pneumonia, and rich soups were used to treat hangovers.

But some peoples don't have a tradition of the first courses at all. Some of our compatriots also don't eat soups simply because they dislike it and they're fine. So may soup be not so indispensable?