This is a site that I use: http://www.recipenutrition.com/RWplacement.aspx, you don't enter the ingredients you use in the amount that you use, and it figures out the calories per serving for you. You just have to know how many servings there are, which I guess can be tricky. Otherwise, I would think that you can do all the math manually, adding calories from each ingredient and dividing by the number of servings that you get.
I was kind of lazy when it came to soup calories. I checked several on-line calorie counters for different restaurants that offer the same style, (thickness/veggie/meat ratios) as what I make. I then averaged the amounts, (on the lower calorie end) and called it good. I tend to make my soup a little more liquidity than most resturants, and don't add as many starchy veggies, so I'm pretty sure my soup comes in a little lower than resturants.
I don't cook but I have a friend that trades favors for food :-), it might be the only way my family gets something different, anyway I digress. Since I don't make the soups I look up the kind of soup online in calorie king or something like it and I always take the most coloric of the group as my calorie count. life is too short not to enjoy a good homemade soup!
PS curried lentil in the fridge for lunch today...yummm
I love to cook, and make a different pot of soup each week. I basically write down each ingredient (one cup onion, two cups celery, four cups chicken broth, etc) and write the fat and calories next to each ingredient. I add up the total fat and calories for the entire pot of soup. Then I divide into servings to come up with calorie counts per bowl. I like big portions, so I often try to see if I can turn a soup into fewer servings, so I'll have a bigger portion, lol.
I admittedly get a little crazy with this next step, but I weigh each portion in the bowls to make sure they are fairly even. You can just eyeball it, though. Hope this helps.
Ideally, I measure ingredients before I make the soup, and then calculate the calories/exchanges (because I follow an exchange plan) and then after the soup is done, I measure the quantity, and determine the calories/exchanges per portion.
But over time, I've found that my recipes must be pretty typical, because when I've compared my soup calories, to the calories for similar soups in my exchange and calorie counting books and online resources, they actually come pretty close to what's listed. For example, I made a vegetable soup that I calculated at 120 to 130 calories, and when I looked online and in my books estimations for vegetables soup ranged from 100 to 150 calories.
Most of the foods I eat, are pretty clear cut in their calorie/exchange estimation (the apples I typically choose count as 2 fruit exchanges or 130 to 150 calories). I don't have to estimate very often, so I don't worry too much when I do. The problem arises only if I decide that since I can't count it exactly, that I "blew it" for the day.
I do much better when I choose to "estimate and move on."
If the soup is made, estimate. Sure you could drain the solids from the broth and refrigerate the broth (so you can separate and measure the fat), you could seperate the meat and vegetables and measure or weight each, and then you could put the soup back together. That's the only way (if the soup is already made) to get as accurate as possible. Are you sure that's still what you want to do? If so, then that's what you do.
Or you could look up the calorie counts for similar soups and guesstimate, and "next time" measure the ingredients before you make the soup. After it's done, tally the calories, measure the soup, and determine the calories per bowl (and write the recipe down, so that you can follow it next time, and won't have to recount it all again).
I also create recipe templates, because I follow an exchange plan. It means I can change ingredients without changing the calorie count much and without changing the exchange count at all. For example a recipe might look something like this:
"Whatever" soup
2 cups reduced fat broth, any flavor (less than 30 calories per cup, check can)
1 12oz can V-8 or tomato juice
4 ounces any lean cooked meat (5 to 6 ounces raw)
5 cups any non-starchy raw veggies or 2.5 cups leftover cooked vegetables.
salt, pepper, and seasonings to taste (these are in such small quantities that the calorie count will be zero)
When soup is done, divide into four portions - each bowl will have
1 protein, 2 vegetables (about 105 calories).
By using different broths, veggies and meats, I can make dozens of variations of the soup, and the calories and exchanges are still going to be the same. If I want to add a starch ingredient - say potatoes, rice, noodles, corn or peas - I can do that, but it will change the calorie/exchange count. For example I could add one large diced potato to the above recipe, and I'd have to add 1 starch serving (about 60 - 80 calories) to the counts for each bowl. Still pretty simple math, that means I don't have to recalculate the recipe every time I make it.
I think the most important thing to remember, is that if you are making your own stock, to just make sure to set in the fridge overnight so you can take all the fat off the next morning. As long as you do this, you get a great idea of the calories in the stock itself. If you dont defat it, judging the fat content is really hard to do, and will throw the numbers of terribly.
whenever I do recipes i figure out how many calories are in the whole thing, then decide how many portions it has and divide by that. For instance I have a meatloaf i like to do and I assume 1/6 of it is a serving.
I guess that's the same as what everyone else is saying but just a slightly different view. I too use livestrong's daily plate to help calculate.
How to count homemade soup calories?
