500 Calories or Less: Tomato, Bacon & Bean Soup
This is one of our favourite less than 500 calorie meals. It’s perfect if you’re looking for 5:2 diet plan ideas or just fancy something lighter for dinner. The 500 calories fast days are obviously the hardest part of the diet. The point of the 5:2 diet is that you give your body 2 fast days and 5 days where you eat normally, albeit slightly healthier. The diet has become one of the nation’s favourite weight-loss options and the fast days needn’t be as scary as they sound.
Being on a diet doesn’t mean missing out on your favourite treats. We’ve got lots of low calorie versions of classic meals including curry, stir-fries, sandwiches and more. And of course, we’d love to hear how you’re getting on with your 5:2 diet progress so feel free to comment below and let us know all about it.
Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 50 minutes
Calories: 349
Ingredients
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 200 smoked bacon lardons
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 2 red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes, to taste
• pinch of cayenne
• 2 x 400g tins mixed beans, drained and rinsed
• Large handful fresh coriander, chopped
Method
Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat and fry lardons for about 5min until golden. Lift out and set aside, leaving oil in the pan.
To the pan, add the onion, peppers and a splash of water. Cook for 10min until softened. Stir in cooked lardons, tomatoes, chilli flakes, cayenne pepper and 200ml water. Bring mixture to the boil, then cover and simmer for 20min, stirring occasionally.
Uncover pan, add the beans and cook for another 10min. Stir in the coriander and check the seasoning before serving. Enjoy!
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