High Protein Soup: Four Bowls Weighed Ingredient by Ingredient

I call a soup high protein at 20 g or more in the bowl, and most soups miss that by a wide margin. A cup of canned chicken noodle soup made up with water has 2.9 g. The three soups below reach 31–38 g, a tomato soup climbs to 29.7 g in two steps, and every ingredient is weighed from USDA records. What lifts a soup is a dense protein in the bowl: chicken, beans, shrimp or tofu.

What makes a soup high protein?

It takes a protein food in the pot, since a cup of chicken broth adds only 1.6 g. My line is 20 g or more a bowl. For a daily figure I start from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which give 1.2–1.6 g per kg of body weight. For a 70 kg (154 lb) adult that’s 84–112 g, and a third of it is 28–37 g. Those thirds are my arithmetic. So 20 g covers more than half of a dinner’s share, and the rest can come from what you eat beside the bowl.

Your own daily protein comes from your height and weight, as how much protein to eat a day shows by body weight, and the protein calculator does that sum.

Most soups fall short because they’re mostly water. Here is what a cup holds in three canned soups, plus the whole can of the best one.

Canned soup	Serving	Protein	Energy	Sodium
Chicken noodle, prepared with equal volume water	248 g (1 cup)	2.9 g	60 kcal	831 mg
Tomato, prepared with equal volume water	248 g (1 cup)	1.8 g	79 kcal	461 mg
Lentil with ham, ready-to-serve	248 g (1 cup)	9.3 g	139 kcal	1,319 mg
Lentil with ham, ready-to-serve	567 g (1 can, 20 oz)	21.2 g	318 kcal	3,016 mg

The lentil soup only reaches 20 g if you eat the whole can, and then the sodium alone is 3,016 mg. The Guidelines tell everyone aged 14 and over to stay under 2,300 mg a day. Homemade soup lets you choose the broth and keep sodium down.

What are some high protein soup recipes?

Three that I built ingredient by ingredient, one bowl each. The weights are what goes into the pot, not what ends up in the bowl, because simmering boils off water. The protein stays. Energy uses the specific Atwater value where the record has one, and the totals are the sum of the rows as printed.

Chicken and white bean soup

Ingredient (state)	Weight	Protein	Fat	Energy
Chicken breast, braised	60 g	19.3 g	1.9 g	100 kcal
White beans, boiled, no salt	150 g	14.6 g	0.5 g	208 kcal
Chicken broth, ready-to-serve	249 g (1 cup)	1.6 g	0.5 g	15 kcal
Carrots, raw	60 g (1 medium carrot)	0.6 g	0.1 g	25 kcal
Celery, raw	40 g	0.2 g	0.1 g	6 kcal
Onion, yellow, raw	50 g	0.4 g	0.0 g	18 kcal
Olive oil	4.5 g (1 tsp)	0.0 g	4.5 g	40 kcal
Total		36.7 g	7.6 g	412 kcal

The whole pot gives 36.7 g of protein in 412 kcal, which works out to 8.9 g per 100 kcal. Beans carry 14.6 g. Leave the chicken out and the bowl drops to 17.4 g. That’s under my line. A vegetarian bowl needs the yogurt swirl from the next soup.

Lentil soup with a Greek yogurt swirl

Ingredient (state)	Weight	Protein	Fat	Energy
Lentils, boiled, no salt	198 g (1 cup)	17.9 g	0.8 g	230 kcal
Water	250 g (1 cup)	0.0 g	0.0 g	0 kcal
Tomatoes, crushed, canned	100 g	1.4 g	0.4 g	32 kcal
Carrots	60 g	0.6 g	0.1 g	25 kcal
Onion	50 g	0.4 g	0.0 g	18 kcal
Olive oil	4.5 g (1 tsp)	0.0 g	4.5 g	40 kcal
Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat	100 g (swirled in)	10.3 g	0.4 g	61 kcal
Total		30.6 g	6.2 g	406 kcal

This one has 30.6 g of protein and 406 kcal, with no meat in it. The yogurt supplies 10.3 g for 61 kcal. Without it the bowl has 20.3 g, just over my line.

Shrimp, silken tofu and spinach soup

Ingredient (state)	Weight	Protein	Fat	Energy
Silken tofu, firm	150 g (about 1.8 slices)	10.4 g	4.1 g	93 kcal
Shrimp, cooked	100 g	24.0 g	0.3 g	99 kcal
Chicken broth	249 g (1 cup)	1.6 g	0.5 g	15 kcal
Spinach, raw	60 g (2 cups)	1.7 g	0.2 g	14 kcal
Total		37.7 g	5.1 g	221 kcal

The lightest soup of the three: 37.7 g of protein for 221 kcal, or 17.1 g per 100 kcal. The tofu record is a branded firm silken tofu, so read your own package before you trust the number. If you’d rather hold your protein than spoon it, high protein wraps pack a chicken and yogurt filling into one hand.

How do I make a high protein tomato soup?

Take a plain tomato soup and add two things. The base is mostly crushed tomatoes, so it gives only 4.8 g, and blending in boiled white beans lifts it to 19.4 g. Plain nonfat Greek yogurt stirred in at the end takes it to 29.7 g.

Ingredient (state)	Weight	Protein	Fat	Energy
Tomatoes, crushed, canned	250 g	3.6 g	1.0 g	81 kcal
Chicken broth	125 g (half a cup)	0.8 g	0.3 g	8 kcal
Onion	50 g	0.4 g	0.0 g	18 kcal
Olive oil	4.5 g (1 tsp)	0.0 g	4.5 g	40 kcal
Base: the soup as it stands		4.8 g	5.8 g	147 kcal
White beans, boiled, no salt	150 g (blended in)	14.6 g	0.5 g	208 kcal
Step 1: with the beans		19.4 g	6.3 g	355 kcal
Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat	100 g (stirred in off the heat)	10.3 g	0.4 g	61 kcal
Step 2: with the yogurt too		29.7 g	6.7 g	416 kcal

The cup of canned tomato soup in the first table has 1.8 g. The finished bowl here has 29.7 g of protein for 416 kcal, but its ingredients weigh about 680 g against 248 g in that cup, so it’s a bowl against a cup.

What should I watch in a high protein soup?

Broth first. Ready-to-serve chicken broth carries 371 mg of sodium per 100 g, which is 924 mg in a cup. The chicken and bean soup above comes to about 1,040 mg once the vegetables are added. That’s my sum. A low sodium broth has its own record, with different numbers.

Canned beans change the math. Cannellini beans, canned, drained and rinsed have 7.41 g of protein and 164 mg of sodium per 100 g. Boiled white beans have 9.73 g and 6 mg. A 150 g scoop of the canned kind gives 11.1 g of protein and 246 mg of sodium, against 14.6 g and 9 mg. Drain and rinse yours to match the record, or find the record for your own can.

Weigh beans in the state the record describes. Raw lentils hold 24.63 g of protein per 100 g, so a cup of 192 g has 47.3 g, while a cup of boiled lentils has only 17.9 g because lentils absorb water as they cook. Weigh the dry lentils but log them against the boiled record, and you undercount by 30 g, about two thirds.

These bowls are sized for healthy adults. With kidney disease, during pregnancy or breastfeeding, or under 18, your doctor sets the protein number, so check it before you lean on 30-plus grams a sitting.

Make one pot this week, weigh the ingredients and log a bowl. A slow cooker handles all three. If you cook this weekly, Calsa can keep the pot as a recipe built from its ingredients, and each entry shows the source behind its number.