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Draft: not yet reviewed by a clinician

Use this page to prepare questions for your care team. It does not replace their advice. Your own targets and doses come from your nephrologist, diabetes team and renal dietitian.

Home-style chicken noodle soup

A cup of canned chicken noodle soup has about 830 mg sodium. Made at home with low-sodium broth, herbs and lemon, a big bowl (about 1½ cups) has about 130 mg. Soup counts as fluid: on a fluid limit, a bowl uses about 350 mL of your allowance, so plan for it or have a smaller bowl.

Serves 4 · 35 minutes · Lower potassium · Lower phosphorus · Freezes well

Carbohydrate per serving

22 g carbohydrate (about 1½ carb choices of 15 g). That is not much for a meal. For a lunch of about 55 g, add 1 slice of white bread (14 g) and ½ cup of canned pineapple in juice (20 g), or more pasta in the soup.

Per serving

Energy Carb Protein Potassium Phosphorus Sodium Fluid Fiber
232 kcal 22 g 21.4 g 463 mg 214 mg 129 mg 349 mL 1.9 g

Checked by scripts/build_handbook.py: sodium at most 600 mg per serving; "lower potassium" means at most 600 mg and "lower phosphorus" at most 300 mg per serving. See how recipes are checked.

Ingredients that are not in the app's food list (herbs, spices and a few others) add about 12 mg potassium per serving; they are counted above.

Ingredients

Ingredient Amount Grams
Olive oil 1 tbsp olive oil 14 g
Onion, raw ½ cup chopped onion 80 g
Celery, raw 1 stalk celery, sliced 40 g
Carrot, raw 1 medium carrot, sliced thin 61 g
Garlic, raw 2 cloves garlic, chopped 6.0 g
Chicken broth, low sodium, canned 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (check the label for potassium chloride) 960 g
Water, tap 2 cups water 474 g
Thyme, dried ½ tsp dried thyme 0.5 g
Black pepper, ground ¼ tsp black pepper 0.6 g
Chicken breast, roasted, skinless 6 oz cooked chicken breast, diced (about 1½ cups) 170 g
Pasta, cooked 1½ cups cooked small pasta shapes or broken spaghetti, cooked without salt 186 g
Parsley, fresh 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley 7.6 g
Lemon juice, fresh 1 tbsp lemon juice 15 g

Steps

  1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook the onion, celery and carrot for 5 minutes until soft. Add the garlic for 1 more minute.
  2. Add the broth, water, thyme and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes until the carrot is tender.
  3. Add the chicken and cooked pasta and heat until steaming, about 5 minutes.
  4. Turn off the heat and stir in the parsley and lemon juice. Taste before adding anything: lemon and pepper usually do the job of salt.

Why it works for kidneys

  • The potassium from the carrot and celery stays in the broth, so it counts even though they are boiled. One carrot for 4 bowls keeps it low.
  • Some low-sodium broths use potassium chloride instead of salt. Read the ingredient list and pick one without it.
  • Cook the pasta separately and add it at the end so it does not soak up the broth.

Make it fit you

  • On a fluid limit: serve 1 cup of soup with extra chicken and pasta in the bowl, so you get the same food with less liquid.
  • Freeze: freeze the soup without the pasta for up to 3 months; add freshly cooked pasta when you reheat it.
  • Rice instead of pasta: ¾ cup cooked white rice for the pot.

Log it in the app

Log one serving as these foods from the app's food list (grams per serving), or save them once as a meal (Planning and menus):

  • Olive oil: 3.4 g
  • Onion, raw: 20 g
  • Celery, raw: 10 g
  • Carrot, raw: 15 g
  • Garlic, raw: 1.5 g
  • Chicken broth, low sodium, canned: 240 g
  • Water, tap: 119 g
  • Chicken breast, roasted, skinless: 43 g
  • Pasta, cooked: 47 g
  • Lemon juice, fresh: 3.8 g

Sources

Not yet reviewed by a clinician. Facts and sources last checked 2026-10-06.