Soup To Nourish Your Body

Tags

5 a day, Asian Broth, blender, blitz, body, boiling water, bowl, carrots, celery, crème fraîche, crush, delicious soup, dried red lentils, eating, enjoy, fat free, flask, fresh, fresh thyme leaves, fry, goodness, ground coriander, gym session, heat, humus, leeks, lime, lump free, made from scratch, Nourishing food, olive oil, oven, pan, peel, pitta, quick and easy recipe, red chilli, red pepper., Roast Sweet Potato Soup, satisfying, silky smooth soup, small chunks, smooth, spring onions, steaming, stir, supermarket, sweet potato, tablespoons, tinned, tomato purée, vegetable bouillon powder, vegetable stock, vegetables, warming soup, wholesome, winner, winter, Winter Vegetable Soup with Lentils

If you are looking for wholesome, nourishing food that will feed your body this winter, soups are a real winner.

Yes, you can buy tinned and fresh ones at the supermarket, but there is something really satisfying about serving up a steaming bowl of goodness you have made from scratch.

Asian Broth
If you are looking for a light lunch option, you can’t go wrong with this quick and easy recipe that serves four.

You will need:
3 cloves of garlic
One piece of ginger (around 5cm)
200 g of pak choi, choy sum and Chinese cabbage
2 spring onions
1 red chilli
2 star anise
800 ml of clear vegetable stock
1 lime
Soy sauce

To make:
Peel and crush the garlic, then peel and grate the ginger. Trim the greens and finely slice the spring onions and chilli then add to a saucepan together with the garlic, ginger and star anise.
Put the pan over a low heat, add the stock, then bring to the boil. Gently simmer for around half an hour, then finally add the vegetables and cook gently until they are slightly wilted but still give a little bit of crunch.
Serve with soy sauce and a little lime juice and enjoy the fragrant flavours.

Winter Vegetable Soup with Red Lentils
This is a great warming soup to enjoy with family and friends after a country walk but also makes a hearty dinner when served with pitta bread and humus.

You will need:

85g of dried red lentils
2 medium carrots, diced
2 leeks, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and diced
2 tablespoons of tomato purée
1 tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves
3 cloves of garlic peeled and crushed
1 tablespoon of vegetable bouillon powder
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
Boiling water
Salt and pepper to taste

To make:
Add the lentils and vegetables to a pan together with the tomato purée, thyme, garlic, bouillon powder and coriander, then pour in one litre of boiling water and stir well. Cover the pan and simmer for 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender.
You can either eat this as a chunky soup, or blitz in a blender and enjoy a smoother meal.

Roast Sweet Potato Soup

This delicious soup is a packed with 2 of your 5 a day and is perfect for taking to work in a flask or eating after a gym session.

You will need:
500g of sweet potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
300g of carrots, peeled and diced
Olive oil
2 small red onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated
1 tablespoon of vegetable bouillon powder
100ml of fat-free crème fraîche, plus extra to serve
Salt and pepper
Boiling water

To make:
Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/ gas 7 then drizzle the carrots and sweet potatoes with olive oil plus salt and pepper and cook for around half an hour.
Heat two large tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan and fry the onion until it is soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for several minutes then pour in the boiling water and vegetable bouillon powder and mix well and simmer for around ten minutes.
Take the roasted vegetables out of the oven and once cool, add to the pan mix and blend together until smooth and lump free.
Add the crème fraîche, reheat and enjoy.

Chicken soup, the soul lifter

Tags

anti-biotics, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiviral properties, betacarotene, blender, bones, bowl, brown rice, bug busting, butternut squash, chicken, chicken soup, chillies, cold viruses, fresh ginger, garlic, ginger, gut-friendly bacteria, hydrate, immune system boosters, ingredients, live yogurt, mix, mushrooms, nasal membranes, natural decongestant, nose, onion, pan, potent, powerful, quinoa, sauté, Shiitake mushrooms, shred, smooth, sniff, spoonful, spoonful of live yoghurt, stir, stock, stuffy nose, super-nourishing, zinc

Old wives tale or not, there is something magical about chicken soup.

Clear broths for poorly tums, spicy chicken noodle soup for a stuffy nose and there is nothing like a lovely bowl of hot, creamy soup to cheer you up when you are feeling below par.

You can of course get it in a can, but if you want something super-nourishing that will warm you up and make you feel better and brighter, we have the perfect recipe for you.

For our winning bug buster you will need:

5 chicken thighs (ideally organic)
1 small butternut squash, deseeded
1 small pack of Shiitake mushrooms, washed
4 cloves of garlic
1 red onion
2 green chillies
1 piece of fresh ginger (a 5cm square should work)
1 litre of fresh chicken stock
To make a perfect pan soup, you will need to:

Chop the chillies, garlic, onion and sauté them together until the onion softens and goes slightly brown.

Next, chop the butternut squash into manageable cubes, slice the mushrooms and add to the pan together with the chicken. Stir all of this together and then add enough stock to cover the ingredients.

Turn down the heat and simmer the mix until the squash is soft and the chicken is cooked.

This is the bit many people don’t do, and makes all the difference. Carefully remove the chicken from the soup and put on plate, put the other ingredients in a blender and mix until you have a smooth soup base.

Loosen the chicken from the bones, shred and then put back into the now smooth soup and serve.

Individually these ingredients are powerful, together they are potent, and this is why.

Let’s start with the chicken. We all know chicken is a source of protein which is vital for your immune systems but it also packed with zinc, which is believed to reduce the severity and length of colds.

The chicken stock is added because that extra bit of liquid will not only help hydrate you but also clear blocked noses.

Green chillies are a brilliant natural decongestant that stimulates nasal membranes and helps clear nasty mucus.

Garlic contains the compound allicin, which is full of antibacterial and antiviral properties, which help mop up cold viruses and get rid of them a little bit faster.

We suggest using red, rather than white onions, because they contain antibacterial properties and offer and added blast of goodness.

Butternut squash isn’t always used in soup but we like it because it is full of betacarotene, which an anti-inflammatory that will also helping clear up a stuff nose. Bet you didn’t know that?

Ginger is an all round natural bug busting wonder product. It fires up you circulation so those white blood cells can deal with any infection fast, it warms up if you are feeling cold and because it has anti-inflammatory properties it can clear bunged up noses and heavy heads.

We love this soup served piping hot with a slice of garlic bread and large glass of water with lemon, but there are other ways to enjoy it.

If bread isn’t for you, but you need a little more energy, why not add a handful of brown rice or quinoa.

If you have been on antibiotics, adding a spoonful of live yoghurt will give you a much-needed serving of gut-friendly bacteria.

If you are a vegetarian, don’t despair. Swapping the chicken thighs for a handful of almonds will give you a healthy serving of essential amino acids that are brilliant immune system boosters.

What’s your favourite soup, we would love to know.

Team Pure-Beauty