Gestational Diabetes Recipes

Eating something bright green makes me feel good. I have this idea that green means all the nutrients are still intact and alive. In any case, this soup is fast to make, full of flavour and gestational diabetes friendly. It’s a handy one to remember for your 1 carbohydrate serve snacks. (Main carbohydrate containing ingredients are listed in bold.)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
  2 large brown onions, chopped
  3 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
  2 carrots, chopped
  2 celery sticks, chopped
  8 cups salt reduced vegetable stock
  600g/ ~3 cups frozen peas
  1 bunch fresh mint, roughly chopped (save a handful to garnish)
  150g/ ~5.2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese

Optional

• 300g/ 10 ounces thickly sliced ham off the bone chopped or chopped bacon.
• One carb serving per person of wholegrain bread, toasted

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onion, garlic and bacon or ham (if using) and cook uncovered until onion and garlic are soft. Careful not to burn garlic.

Add carrots, celery and stock to saucepan. Cover and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, add peas and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Tip: To keep your soup a vibrant green make sure you don’t overcook your peas.

Remove saucepan from heat. Take out a cup of peas then add fresh mint and blend the soup with a hand blender or kitchen whiz. Add the peas back in for a more chunky consistency or blend well.

Serve in bowls topped with grated Parmesan and mint.