Most markets carry various brands of chicken and beef broth that offer good flavor. These products are adequate for making everyday soups and are well worth keeping on hand. Always choose the low-sodium versions to use as stock and then add more salt to your soup as necessary.
If your physician or dietitian has given you any instructions at all about watching your salt, you’ve probably been told about the high sodium content of canned soup. You may be on a standard 3,000-milligrams-a-day regimen, recommended for most individuals, or a 2,000-milligrams-a-day sodium-restricted diet.
The table shows some sample amounts of the milligrams of sodium in a single serving of some common soups.
| Soups | Serving Size | Sodium in Milligrams |
|---|---|---|
| Low Sodium Tomato (Campbell’s) | 10-1/2 ounces | 60 |
| Low Sodium Chicken Broth (Campbell’s) | 10-1/2 ounces | 140 |
| Chicken Broth (Health Valley) | 8 ounces | 150 |
| Onion Soup Mix (Lipton) | 8 ounces (or 1 tablespoon mix) | 610 |
| Lentil (Progresso) | 8 ounces | 750 |
| Tomato (Campbell’s) | 4 ounces (condensed soup) | 760 |
| Chicken Broth (Campbell’s) | 4 ounces (condensed soup) | 770 |
| Vegetable Beef (Campbell’s) | 4 ounces (condensed soup) | 890 |
| Chicken Noodle Instant Soup (Knorr) | 8 ounces | 910 |
| Clam Chowder (Campbell’s) | 4 ounces (condensed soup) | 960 |
| Chunky Beef (Campbell’s) | 10-3/4 ounces | 1,130 |
For another low-salt stock alternative, you can make a basic vegetable stock by simmering together aromatic vegetables like onion and celery with carrots, which add sweetness, plus some parsley and a bay leaf. You need to cook this mixture for only about 20 minutes.
The classical combination of vegetables (onions, celery, and carrots) is called mirepoix (pronounced meer-pwa). It’s a basic beginning for many soups and stocks. When you’re chopping mirepoix for stocks, you can roughly chop the vegetables and even skip the peeling if you prefer. But when getting the veggies ready for soups, take the time to prep them as the recipe suggests.