The title of this post, “healing soup” couldn’t be more fitting: last week, the day before my husband’s birthday to be exact, our son Adriano and I caught a horrible virus that lasted 48 hours. Nothing more, nothing less, just 48 hours… but it felt like a long and horrible 48 hours let me I tell you! Funny enough, when the 48 hours was up, we were all back to normal, as if nothing had happened… except that my husband caught the bug 24 hours after us… as a nice birthday gift!
Even though we were all good a few days later, our stomachs were left a little fragile. So I raided my fridge to find ingredients to make a soup. Nothing, makes me feel better, then a warm bowl of thick soup that I can drink out of a cup. Some kids have fond memories of chicken noodle soup as a loving homemade remedy for whatever ill spell they were under, but me, it’s a dense vegetable soup or a potage as my mom called it. A potage is a French word for thick soup usually made with cream. But my mom didn’t use cream (even back then she knew dairy was a big no-no for soar stomachs – don’t you just miss that old school common sense some times!) She used whatever vegetables she had on hand and added loads of potatoes to thicken the soup. So that’s exactly what I did…
I found some carrots, turnips and a piece of parsnip. I also found some celery, leeks and onions. I was happy to still have some fresh ginger and thyme left to give my soup an additional boost of healing benefits. Sweet potatoes were going to be my thickening agent (I always have some type of potatoes on hand, luckily this time, it was sweet potato, which is my favourite!)
I’ll be honest, at the time of getting the ingredients together, I had no intention on posting this as a recipe or let alone take a pretty picture of it, simply because I wasn’t sure how this would turn out and I don’t want to share with you guys something I’m not 100% in love with. But by the time the soup was done and ready to eat, it tasted so darn good that I changed my mind. I felt like someone else could and should totally benefit from the heart warming, belly soothing and overall healing benefits of this soup. The texture is creamy, almost velvety, and it offers just enough sweetness from the carrots and sweet potatoes and zing from the ginger and parsnips. Luckily, the ingredients were easy to remember and jot down.
Speaking of jotting down, a few days before this horrible virus visited our home, I started reading the book “May Cause Miracles” by Gabrielle Bernstein. Have any of you read the book? It’s amazing! It is a 40-day guide were Gabby (dropping her name like I know her – I don’t – I’m just in love with her work so I kinda feel like I know her somehow!) literally holds your hand and guides you through a day by day journey into your better Self. Not bad, euh! Every day, different exercises are proposed be it meditation, writing, praying, repeating mantras… I’ll be able to share with you guys the impact all of this has had on me once I’m done the 40-day journey (I’m on day 14) but what I can tell you as of now is that this immense feeling of release and ease has washed over me. I never realized just how much I worry about so many things. Even tiny, little, insignificant things. Especially insignificant things! The release is addictive… I’ll keep you guys posted on my progress.
In the meantime, please enjoy this soup with your family and let me know what fond memories you have of your favourite homemade childhood food remedies.
xx
- 2 medium carrots
- 1 medium parsnip
- 1 small turnip
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 1 leek
- 4 celery branches (keep the leafs – they’re going in the soup too!)
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 1 Tbs coconut oil
- 1″ piece of fresh ginger, skin removed
- 2 tsp fresh thyme
- 6 Cups of water
- 2 vegetable broth cubes
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Peel and coarsely chop the vegetables, including the ginger. Set aside.
- In a large pot, melt the coconut oil over medium high heat.
- Add the onion and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the remaining vegetables and stir.
- Add the water, ginger and fresh thyme.
- Bring to a boil.
- Add the vegetable broth cubes and stir.
- Bring the soup down to strong simmer and allow the vegetables to cook for at least 25 minutes.
- Once cooked, set aside and allow to cool for 10 mins.
- With a handheld blender, blend the soup until you reach a velvety thick consistency.
- Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
- Enjoy
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