Maintaining proper nutrition during treatment for diseases like head and neck cancer can help reduce side effects, improve healing, as well as support immune health, explained Kenisha Parikh, a dietitian at John Theurer Cancer Center, part of Hackensack Meridian Health in New Jersey.
In this cooking demonstration, Parikh shares how to prepare a lentil tomato soup designed to help patients manage common side effects from treatment, such as taste changes, nausea, painful swallowing and mouth sores.
“This recipe is packed with flavor from ingredients like tomatoes, lemon juice, and warming spices such as cumin, coriander, smoked paprika and cinnamon,” Parikh said. “The lentils provide protein, and ingredients like olive oil and whole milk add calories and healthy fats to help prevent unintentional weight loss.”
For patients with more severe swallowing issues, Parikh recommended pureeing the soup with an immersion or countertop blender. The soup can also be frozen in advance for convenience on days when cooking feels difficult.
Adding calorie-dense foods like avocado, Greek yogurt, peanut butter or olive oil to meals is another helpful way to maintain strength during treatment, Parikh noted.
Creamy Lentil Soup Recipe:
Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground coriander
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp paprika
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp black pepper
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes
1 cup red lentils, rinsed and drained
4 cups vegetable broth
1¼ cups water
1 cup milk
Juice of 1 medium lemon
Directions:
1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat.
2. Add the onion, bell pepper, and carrot. Cook until softened, about 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Stir in the coriander, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, salt, pepper, sugar, garlic, and tomato paste. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant.
4. Add the lentils, diced tomatoes, vegetable broth, and water. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Carefully puree the soup using an immersion blender or regular blender until smooth.
6. Stir in the lemon juice and milk. Season with additional salt to taste.
7. Serve warm and enjoy.
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[Music] hi everyone my name is Kenishha Periq i am an oncology dietician here at the John Huard Cancer Center which is a part of the Hackinack Meridian Health Network here in North Jersey um today we’re going to be talking about diet and the importance of nutrition with head and neck cancer nutrition is a vital part during all stages of treatment so before during and after treatment and it’s really important for patients to maintain their nutrition to help fight infections to help um prevent weight loss to help heal and to help with um reducing overall side effects from treatment so today we’re going to be making a lentil soup that helps combat a lot of side effects that head and neck cancer patients face so while they’re going through treatment the first one to three weeks they have side effects like taste changes um nausea decreased appetite um as treatment goes on a little bit longer their side effects get a little bit more severe so things like painful swallowing or difficulty swallowing mouth sores um decreased appetite and nausea continue so we’re going to be talking about how to combat that and this recipe um is a perfect way to kind of uh battle some of those issues that they might face while they’re going through treatment so I have a medium saucepan right now so it’s on about medium heat and I’m going to add about 2 tablespoon of olive oil to that so olive oil is great cuz it’s a heart-healthy fat it’s a monounsaturated fat and a lot of issues that these patients may face is maintaining their weight during treatment so um adding something like a heart-healthy fat like olive oil is a great way to sneak in calories without having to um eat a larger volume of food so we’re going to add that in we’re going to do about two tablespoons just coat the bottom of the pan and let that warm up and then we’re going to add in our chopped vegetables so the first thing is we have some diced onions here so we’re just going to add that to the pot and then we’re going to add chopped carrots as well as bell pepper so carrots and bell pepper are great because they’re rich in vitamins’s A and C so those are great for immunity um as well as they add a little bit of sweetness once they’re cooked down so this is going to be a lentil tomato soup which can be a little acidic so we want to add some sweet vegetables to help cut that acidity okay so we’re going to add that in and then we’re just going to let that cook down for a few minutes okay so while that’s cooking down I’m going to talk a little bit on how we can fight some taste changes that cancer patients might be facing specifically those head and neck cancer patients um so the first thing that can help with taste changes is acid so tomatoes which is the base of this soup as well as lemon juice typically enhance taste to make food a little bit more palatable the next thing that can help with taste of course is adding a lot of spices seasonings sauces herbs so this recipe is really packed with seasoning so for this recipe we have ground coriander cumin smoked paprika black pepper and a little bit of cinnamon um so a lot of strong flavors that’ll come through the soup especially for someone who’s having difficulty tasting or for someone where things are tasting a little bit more bland these will definitely come through so I’m going to add that in and then I’m going to mix it with the rest of the vegetables and you want to cook this down until the onions are translucent and till the bell pepper and the carrots are soft to touch i’m going to turn up the heat a little bit and then we’re going to add a little bit more to the soup so the next thing that we are going to add is a little bit of salt you can always add more as you go but this is about a teaspoon of salt just for taste we’re going to add a little bit of tomato paste we’re going to add a little bit of minced garlic which will help with the taste and then the last thing we’re going to add is sugar so um we do want to cut a little bit of the acidity from this recipe because when you’re going through treatment some side effects can include mouth sores or painful swallowing so for those patients we want to be careful with the acid although it can help with taste we don’t want them to have that burning sensation so sweet vegetables as well as sugar can help cut that acid to make um swallowing a little bit easier to make it less painful so we’re going to add that in and then we’re going to stir that up okay so now we’re going to let this cook down for a little bit okay so this has been sautéing for a few minutes so the onions are translucent and the vegetables are soft so I can squish them down with my spatula which is exactly what we want so next we’re going to add the tomatoes so I have three cans of diced tomatoes you could use whatever variation you like you could do plain diced tomatoes these are basil garlic and onion just for a little bit more flavor um but again you could do whatever you prefer so I’m going to add these into the soup this is going to be the base of the soup and this is what’s really going to help with um bringing out that flavor okay so now we’re going to mix that in and then the next thing I’m going to add is lentils lentils are a great source of protein so what I did here is I got the canned lentils cuz I like things that are a little bit more convenient um if you prefer to soak them and cook them in a pressure cooker or on the stove top you can do that as well um but what’s great for a lot of patients who don’t have a lot of time get the canned ones you can drain them and rinse them to get rid of sodium just that extra salt and then you can just plop them in your recipe so we’re going to mix those in and then we’re going to stir everything together okay next we’re going to add the liquid of um our soup so I’m using vegetable broth just in the spirit of keeping most of this vegetarian but if you did want to add more protein you could use bone broth as a base you could use chicken broth just to really double on on that protein um but we’re just going to use vegetable broth it’s about four cups so that’s one of these containers so we’re just going to add that in and then we’re also going to add about a cup and a4 cup of water just to add a little bit more liquid now this soup is great because you can batch prep it and then freeze it so what’s great is when patients are going through treatment I recommend something like a soup like this because they can prepare it freeze it and then throughout the week when they don’t really have the energy to make meals they already have this all they have to do is heat it up okay and then here is the cup and a4 cup of water and then we are going to mix this together now you just want to let this simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes you do want to stir it so nothing sticks to the bottom but this will really help all the flavors come together as well as allow the vegetables and lentils to soften a little bit more so I’m going to turn it up a little bit and let that get going to save time I do have one that has already been simmered but just to talk you through what you would do the rest of the recipe once it has simmered for about 15 to 20 minutes you do want to puree this recipe so like I mentioned a lot of patients going through treatment they have difficulty swallowing the reason I like this soup is it’s really versatile so at the beginning of treatment where they can tolerate soft foods you might not necessarily need to puree it the lentils are soft the vegetables are soft it’s moist so it’s easy to swallow as treatment goes on and further on into treatment where they’re mostly relying on liquids you do want to puree it to get any of the chunks out but then it becomes fairly easy to swallow um so to pureeed I used an immersion blender so you just plug it in and then um you just have to keep going around it does take a little bit of time but it gets everything really nicely pureed or you could do it in batches in a regular blender if you have so once you’re once you’ve pureeed it it turns into this um so this is the pureed consistency to this I also added whole milk so whole milk is a great source of protein and calories um and it’s a great way to add protein and calories without adding volume so I added about a cup of whole milk to this um other ways to sneak in some calories and protein not necessarily to the soup but to foods when you’re having trouble eating is avocados Greek yogurt peanut butter olive oil adding all those foods can help sneak in calories and protein without adding more volume so it’s great for patients that are going through um active chemo and radiation because we usually advise them to eat small frequent high protein and high calorie meals once I added the milk the last thing I did was I squeezed the lemon um about one medium lemon this one was a little larger so I just did half of a lemon the citrus again it helps bring the flavors together and it helps with those taste changes um and then once that’s done all you do is stir it for about 2 to 3 minutes and then you’re all set you’re ready to serve and enjoy