2 delicious soups to warm you in the coldest months
February and March are the coldest months of winter for many countries around the world and especially much of the United States - unless you live in sunny California or Florida. Either way, these soups are so delicious, you simply must try them no matter what time of the year it is.
The first is a root vegetable soup that is so comforting and filling you'll want to make it every week. What else is great about this stew is that it actually helps you to fight fatigue by powering you with energy and healthy vegetable carbohydrate. Root vegetables have been noted for helping those with adrenal fatigue to finally get off the couch and experience more energy, many former sufferers of this condition will tell you.
Then, this healthy vegetable-loaded gazpacho that you eat hot and serve with a dollop of full fat sour cream or cream fraiche (for a real flavor experience) will become a favorite for lunch, supper, or entertaining friends and family.
Healthy, Creamy Vegan Root Vegetable Stew - 6 servings
- 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
- Few grinds of Pink Himalayan sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 to 1 and 1/2 onions peeled and diced small
- 1 T. minced garlic
- 3 stalks of organic celery with the leaves
- 3-4 large Yukon Gold potatoes medium dice
- 2 large sweet potatoes, diced medium
- 5 medium carrots, peeled and diced small
- 4 med. turnips peeled and diced (you can dice these large, they soften a lot)
- 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and large dice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Organic vegetable broth
1. Start sautéing your aromatics, meaning your celery, garlic and onions in your EVOO.
2. Now add all your broth at once. Turn down the heat extensively--you never boil stock or broth. You can also add some salt and pepper now if you want or can wait until after the vegetables are added.
3. Now you just add every chopped root vegetable in this recipe and bubble until the vegetables reach the desired texture you want.
Tip: to get some of the harder vegetables to soften faster, keep the lid on for 30 to 45 minutes ofver medium low heat. This will help "steam" them soft so you can get dinner on the table faster.
The more often you eat this stew - the more energetic you'll feel. I'm a believer on this!
Hot (not served cold) Gazpacho
Every now and then, I feel a need for a soup that feels like a V8 but healthy, and hot, with maybe a touch of scallions or parsley.
So I load this hot, tomato-y soup up with every single veggie I feel I need more of that would go with this flavor profile.
I mean onions, carrots, healthy peppers like red and orange bells that have every single thing we need for healthy eyes and, plus, that anticancer veggie, cabbage added at the end makes it so filling, you’ll know why the cabbage-soup diet is still around.
Either way it’s a real treat. It’s practically free from calories and fat and what’s more, you’ll want to actually add a dollop of olive oil or fat because you have to absorb all these fat-soluble vitamins literally packed into this eye-nourishing soup.
Hot Gazpacho (serves 6)
Ingredients serves 4 to 6
- 2 T. EVOO or grass-fed butter
- 6 cups Organic tomato juice
- 1 1 cup chopped carrots
- cup chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped orange bell pepper
- 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 1 cup chopped organic celery
- 2 organic peeled, seeded, and chopped cucumbers (important for flavor)
- 1 to 2 cups chopped cabbage, depending on how much fiber and crunch you want
- Red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar really gives this a kick after cooking-maybe 2 to 3 tbsps. or less depending on how you like it.
Directions
- Sauté all the aromatics - that means your onion, celery, carrots, and peppers in oil or butter. You really want to soften these a bit because you don’t want to have to boil tomato juice or you will scorch the flavor right out of this lovely soup.
- In fact, you want to primarily cook the vegetables, all except for the cabbage-and you can use regular green or Napa cabbage for this.
- So get the vegetables really soft and then stir in the tomato juice when they are soft enough to actually eat in a soup.
- You can add the cabbage to the hot tomato juice once it heats up and it will soften quite well on its own.
Ultimately, there are many ways to stay healthy and strong - throughout the winter months. But, certainly, cooking at home with delicious (organic) ingredients is a great place to start!
