A Soup Cleanse That’s Just Splendid

When you hear the word “cleanse,” do you immediately think of celebrities going without food for a week, subsisting on nothing but, like, lemon juice and wishes? That used to be the case for me, I’ll admit, but let me tell you — not all cleanses are based on deprivation.
In fact, there are a lot of cleanses out there that are all about helping you get lots of fresh, nutritious fruits and/or veggies without a bunch of added sugar or other processed stuff added in. They’re more focused on helping you eat well and feel awesome than about, say, dropping three dress sizes in a week. And I have no beef with that.

The Splendid Spoon offers soup cleanses that hit all the right marks (and embody none of those negative deprivation connotations). After starting off with a green smoothie, I had a chance to spend a day checking out their Seasonal Sampler, which was 100 percent vegan, gluten-free and super tasty.
The soups come in BPA-free plastic containers, and you’re encouraged to heat them up, either on the stove (which I did) or in their containers. The biggest issue I had — and I’m more than slightly embarrassed to admit this — was that figuring out how to get the lid off the containers was … challenging. I might’ve just stabbed the top of the first one after giving up in frustration. So, pro tip: Don’t stab the top of your container. Just keep your cool and actually take the lid off. It can be done.
A one-day cleanse, which includes Butternut Turmeric, Kale Ginger, Mushroom with Steel Cut Oats, Sweet and Spicy Beet and Lentil Kale, comes in at 715 calories (which is less than I’d suggest on a normal day, but I will admit that when all your calories are coming straight from lots of vegetables, well — we know a calorie is not just a calorie) and under 2,200 mg of sodium, which can be tough with prepared soups.
The seasonal package (which includes four instead of five soups) changes with the seasons (thanks, Captain Obvious!), but the current offerings are Lentil Kale, Root Vegetable, Curried Corn Chowder, and Mushroom With Steel Cut Oats.
While I’m not a stranger of (or opposed to) the occasional juice cleanse, I have to say that I found eating soup all day to be ridiculously delicious and easy. I was sad when it was over. Truth.
What do you think? Could you sip on soup all day? Soup for breakfast is less weird than you might think. —Kristen