Soups are a great food for winter. Many cultures have sayings similar to “Chicken broth cures all ills”. Broth has many healing properties, so is the base for many winter soups. The first two also both include coconut as a good fat to make the soup more sustaining. So the soups are dairy free but not vegan. Though you could substitute homemade vegetable stock, if desired. (Links to more recipes below. Most are low sugar, low to moderate carb, free of nightshades and gluten.)
Thick vege soup
This is a warming, filling and nourishing soup. You can use root vegetables such as carrots, parsnip, swede (rutabaga), and beetroot. Or winter squashes such as butternut or pumpkin. Organic is best if possible
- 1 litre of chicken, duck or turkey stock (preferably homemade, from real bones)
- 2 or more cups chopped veges – more veges will make a thicker soup
- 1-2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon grated, fresh turmeric (optional)
- 4-8 tablespoons coconut butter, creamed coconut or tinned coconut cream
- juice of 1 lemon
- sea salt to taste
Bring the stock to a boil and skim off any foam. Add the vegetables, ginger and turmeric and simmer for 10-15 minutes, till vegetables are soft. Turn off the heat, and stir in the creamed coconut till melted. Add the lemon juice and sea salt to taste. Blend with a handheld blender till smooth, season to taste and and serve. (If your stock is very flavoursome, you might not need much salt, so best to season at the end.)
Serving ideas
- As a snack – Just a mugful, on it’s own
- For lunch – With a thick slice of bread of your choice, maybe spread with avocado, hummus or cottage cheese
- For dinner – As a starter or as a side dish
Winter warmer broth
This is a quick and easy soup, if you don’t have any vegetables on hand, or haven’t the time and energy to prepare them. Have a mug of this warming soup at first signs of a flu or cold, or when you’re feeling the winter weather. If you get sick, sip throughout the day.
- 1 litre of chicken, duck or turkey stock
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped
- 4-8 Tablespoons coconut butter, creamed coconut or tinned coconut cream
- juice of 1 lemon
- sea salt to taste
Bring the stock to a boil, skim off any foam. Add the ginger (and optional extras) and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the creamed coconut and simmer for another 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice and sea salt to taste, and serve.
These two recipes are by Deb, our nutrition and food allergy consultant. She has a website with a variety of recipes for general health and special diets, which you can see here.
Artichoke Soup
This is Suzanne‘s favourite soup, and has an amazing flavour.
Serves 4.
Prep time: 15 mins / Cook time: 50 mins / Total: 65 mins.
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 2 large cloves garlic, chopped
- Kosher salt, to taste
- 2 pounds sunchokes (jerusalem artichokes), peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 quart chicken stock (use vegetable stock for vegetarian option, and gluten-free stock if cooking gluten-free) – recipes below for making your own stock
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Method
- Sauté the onions, celery, then garlic: Heat the butter in a soup pot over medium-high heat until melted. Add the onions and celery and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Do not brown them. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Sprinkle with salt.
- Add the sunchokes and stock: Add the sunchokes and your choice of stock to the pot and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer, covered, until the sunchokes begin to break down, 45 minutes to an hour.
- Purée the soup and serve: Using an immersion blender or upright blender, purée the soup. If using an upright blender, fill the blender bowl up only to a third of capacity at a time, if the soup is hot. Hold down the lid while blending. Alternatively, you can push the soup through the finest grate on a food mill, or push it through a sturdy sieve. Add more salt to taste.
- Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper before serving.
More soup recipes
For any recipes that contain stock:
- if you’re on a gut healing diet, replace any vegetable stocks with meat or chicken broth or stock
- if you’re on a plant based diet, replace any meat stocks with a homemade or good quality bought vegetable stock
- Homemade chicken broth
- Chicken stock (especially for the GAPS or other gut healing diet) – stock has more meat than broth, which is mainly bones
- Homemade vegetable broth
- Russian borscht
- Coconut Kumara soup
- Celeriac soup
- Curried cauliflower soup
- Creamy Mushroom soup
- Gut Friendly Carrot Soup
- Carrot Ginger Soup
- Curried Carrot Cashew soup
- French Onion soup
- Oxtail soup
- Pea and ham soup
- Roman lentil soup
- Red Lentil Soup with Chicken and Quinoa
- 43 Paleo soups
- 30 Vegan soups
- Spinach & potato soup
- Bieler’s Vegetable Broth – a therapeutic soup for detoxing, healing and restoring acid-alkali balance (vegan)
Just for fun – Stone soup
This is just one version of a common folk tale. The moral of the story is generally considered to be about sharing and community. But another lesson we can take from it, is that we can toss anything into a pot of soup, and get something delicious out. Important to remember when times are hard.
Once upon a time, there was a poor village filled with people who did not like to share. They locked their doors and windows tight and kept what little food they had for themselves. One day, a stranger passed into the village. He was very tired and hungry from his journey. He stopped at the first house and knocked on the door hoping there was food inside.
The woman opened the door only a tiny crack, “Who are you?” the woman asked the stranger. “I am a tired and hungry traveler,” he responded. “Please, may I have something to eat?” “There is hardly any food here,” said the woman. “In fact, I doubt who will find anyone who has extra food to spare. We are all poor and hungry too.” The woman closed the door.
The traveler, although he was tired and hungry, was not ready to give up. He picked a large, round stone from the ground and knocked once more at the door. The lady came to the door again, opening it only halfway. “Yes?” she asked. “Since you are poor like me, perhaps you would like to have some of my stone soup!” “Stone soup?” the woman laughed as she looked at the stone in his hand. “You can’t make soup from a stone!” “I’ve done it before,” replied the traveler.
The woman had never seen anyone make soup from a stone before, but since she was hungry too, she invited him in. Then she lit the fire and placed a kettle of water on top and opened the windows to let out some heat. The traveler placed the stone inside the water until it boiled. He sipped a spoonful of hot liquid. “It’s almost done,” he said. “But if you had just a little salt and butter, the soup would taste so much better!”
The woman went to the cupboard and returned with salt and butter. Just as the traveler was pouring them in the pot, the woman’s husband returned home. In his hands were carrots and potatoes. “What are you making?” asked the woman’s husband. “Stone soup!” replied the woman and the traveler. “Impossible!” shouted the husband.
“It’s almost finished,” the traveler assured the husband as he tasted another spoonful. “But it would be even nicer if we added some carrots and potatoes.” Also hungry, the husband agreed and dropped the carrots and potatoes into the pot!
Soon, the smell of the soup drifted out of her house windows and down the lane. One neighbor who usually stayed inside wandered out and followed the smell all the way to the first house, where he heard them talking about the stone soup.
“Is the stone soup ready now?” the woman and her husband asked the traveler. “Yes, but it could be even better if we had some turnips and beans!” he replied. “I have some,” yelled the neighbor who was watching from the window. The neighbor, curious to taste the soup that was made from a stone, returned with turnips and beans. He poured them into the pot and the smell drifted even further down the lane.
A word about a stranger traveler making soup out of a single stone drew many villagers out of their homes. They followed the delicious smell. “Is the stone soup ready now?” asked the villagers when they arrived. “Yes, but I remember having stone soup with chicken and broth in the stew once,” he replied.
“I have chicken,” said a farmer who ran home to get some. “I have broth,” exclaimed another neighbor who ran to fetch it. The farmer returned and placed pieces of chicken into the pot. When the other neighbor added the broth, the pot was so full that it almost spilled over. The traveler lifted the spoon to taste it. “Perfect!” he exclaimed. Then, he served a bowl of stone soup for every single one of the villagers to taste.
“It’s magic!” the villagers cried out, seeing how much soup he had made. “Delicious!” cried out another villager. “But where can we get a magic stone? Surely this one has been used up.” The traveler shook his head and pulled the stone out of the pot. The stone was still whole! The villagers realized that the delicious and plentiful soup did not come from the stone.
The traveler drank the leftover soup and went on his journey. From that day on, the villagers shared what they had with each other, and the village became a happier place.
Related posts
Recipe posts compiled by Deb.
For more recipes, go to the Recipe Index page
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