Soups for Health

Soups are so awesome! This week I want to take a look at three different kinds of soup: Soup that helps to heal (using tenets of Chinese Medicine), soups that help with detox, and soups that help to keep in balance (based on the soups of Sardinia, Okinawa, and 7th day Adventists, three of the oldest living populations on earth). First of all, Chinese Soups are amazing. My favorite TCM(Traditional Chinese Medicine) soups are Spleen drying, since I have a damp spleen myself. So I'm going to list a few recipes for damp spleen here:

http://www.everydayhealth.com/health-recipe/cabbage-and-chicken-soup.aspx

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:ytx6-IXOumEJ:www.nyctcm.edu/assets/recipes2.pdf+damp+spleen+soup&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a



Now I also want to take a gander at TCM soups for Gall Bladder issues, since I know a growing number of people with gallbladder issues. Those links are here:


Recipes

Beet, Carrot & Lemon “Love-Your-Liver” Salad
5 medium carrots, grated
Grate the carrots and beets finely and put in a large glass jar or pyrex food container (do not use plastic).
2 medium beets, grated
Squeeze the lemon juice and add to the beet/carrot mixture.
1 lemon, juiced
Add the olive oil and mix with a fork.
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil*
Or substitute hemp, flax or any omega 3-6-9 oil (these oils are best left out and added just before serving to prevent oxidation)
Refrigerate for a few hours and serve as a side salad or add to a green salad.
Tastes like mandarin oranges!


Dandelion Cocktail - Serves 3
1 ½ cups tomato juice
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco sauce


Recipe from: Schofield, Janet. Discovering Wild Plants: Alaska, Western Canada, the Northwest. 1992.


Chinese Noodle Soup - Serves 4-6

2 cups noodles, cooked and drained (buckwheat soba noodles work well
4 cups vegetable broth
Heat broth and add carrots, onion and salt.
1 carrot, cut into flowers or thin diagonals
1 green onion, chopped Add greens and cook until bright-colored.
2 cups spring greens, finely cut (baby kale, beet greens, dandelion, parsely, spinach…)
½ cup sprouts
Sea salt or Tamari soy sauce to taste


Recipe adapted from: Pitchford, Paul. Healing With Whole Foods. 1993.


And finally, I want to look at kidney chi building soups.

1 pound black beans
1 bay leaf
1 large onion, sliced
Salt to taste
A few cloves of chopped garlic
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1 cup dry sherry (not cooking sherry)

Instructions

1. Pick over beans to remove any dirt, stones or foreign objects. Wash well, then soak for 8 hours in ample cold water.

2. Drain beans and cover with a generous amount of fresh water. Bring to a boil over high heat in a large saucepan with the bay leaf. Skim off foam, lower heat, and simmer, partially covered, until beans are just tender, about 1 hour.

3. Add onion and continue to cook until onion becomes extremely soft, about 1 more hour.

4. Add salt to taste and garlic. Continue to cook, adding a little boiling water if necessary, until beans are very soft, about 1-2 hours more.

5. Remove bay leaf and turn off heat. Ladle beans in batches into a blender or food processor and puree, or use an immersion blender and puree soup directly in the saucepan.

6. Add dry mustard powder and dry sherry. Correct seasoning. Reheat and serve, adding any garnishes you wish, such as slices of lemon or freshly chopped herbs.



All three of these have been issues of mine in the past, and are also issues for those I know and care for. My intention is that they help you, as well. You are someone I care for now too!


and for maintenance of health, here are a few Sardinian soups

Okinawan soup
and a 7th day Adventist soup

And here is the recipe for a good sounding health soup for Fall:
1.5 cups spring water
1.5 cups tonic herbal tea (pau d'arco, chanca pierda, rhodiola, astragulus root, burdock root, kava kava, cat's claw, horsetail, nettle leaf or root, oatstraw, noni leaf, alfalfa)
1 tbsp Earth
2 tbsp miso (South River brand in glass)
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 stalk celery
2 cloves garlic
1-1.5 tbsp kelp powder
pinch of habanero or cayenne
sprinkle of turmeric powder
sprinkle of chia seeds and hemp seeds
sprinkle cordycepts mushroom powder
...blend on high in a good blender
top with diced avocado, parsley, and grated black peppercorns
optional-add kyolic aged garlic and lemon juice.