Chicken Soup With Leeks and Lemon

I feel like I owe my friend Missy a bunch of recipes to help her out during this 28 to Great challenge, and I have not done a very good job at posting here. Truth is, I've been busy with birthday celebrations this weekend and haven't cooked a thing for the whole weekend! So tonight I will steal a recipe from someone else and post it here. I made this soup last week, and the recipe was from the "Farm Fresh To You" box that I get every other week.
My kids are not crazy about leeks, but this was a success! You can make it Paleo friendly by omitting the grains, or you can, like I did, replace the rice with quinoa. It's rich in protein, and if you  use my broth recipe for the stock, it will be perfect for cold and flu season!

I know we are back in the 80's here in California, but there's rain in the forecast, so a soup might be just what the doctor ordered by the time it's Sunday night. The picture doesn't look like much, but trust me, it was yumi!

Ingredients:

2 quarts chicken or turkey stock, preferably homemade
1 pound leeks, white and light green parts only, cleaned and sliced thin
2/3 cup rice or coarse bulgur, or quinoa (to taste)
4 large eggs, at room temperature
Fresh juice of 2 lemons, strained, or about 6 to 8 tbsp, to taste
salt to taste
freshly ground pepper
Chopped fresh parsley or dill for garnish

Combine the stock and leeks; bring to a boil; reduce the heat and simmer 20 minutes. Add the rice or bulgur and continue to simmer until the grain is cooked through, 15 to 30 minutes. Taste and adjust salt.

Beat together the eggs and lemon juice until frothy in a medium bowl

Just before serving, making sure that the broth isn't boiling, gradually add 2 cups to the eggs and lemon mixture while beating vigorously with a whisk to prevent the eggs from curdling. Turn of the heat under the soup, pour the egg-lemon mixture into the soup, stir well and serve, adding a bit of pepper to each bowl and garnishing with chopped fresh parsley or dill. Serves 6.

White Bean and Beet Greens Tomato Soup, in the crockpot

I know it feels a bit whiny to say that from sunny California, where the sun shines 345 days of the year and the temperatures rarely drop below the forties, but it has been COLD!
Even though I haven't posted a whole lot of warm meal recipes on here, I have been making a ton of soups during fall and winter. They are nothing exceptional, which is probably why I haven't really posted them, but we love them in my family, and that's one sure way I can feed my kids vegetables, as long as it is blended.
As I said in my last post, I am doing this 28 day challenge of eating only real whole foods, in the right quantities and proportions, and the friend who inspired me to do it asked me for recipes of warm foods. There are a ton of recipes on this blog that are 28toGreat friendly, but very few that are winter comfort foods.
I wrote this one about 8 months ago, but it was spring then, and I didn't think people would crave a bowl of hot soup in the California 80 degrees weather.

One thing you might learn from this recipe is that there are foods out there you didn't even know where foods. Such as... beet greens! Did you know that when you buy that bunch of beets at the farmer's market or at Whole Foods or Sprouts, you don't need to toss the stems out or feed them to your pet rabbit?   They are perfectly edible if you cook them (don't try them raw in your smoothie, they will tast bitter!) and taste delicious simply sauteed in olive or coconut oil, garlic and salt. Or in a soup. Such as this one:

This soup is easy to make, whether you stir it in a pot on your stove, or let it simmer in your crockpot. I love my crockpot, it's a lifesaver for those work days when I don't come home until 9 or 10pm and I need my family to have a hot meal for dinner, or for the weekend, when we are out and about all day.


2 cups of dry white beans, soaked all night (or a can of cannellini beans)
1 onion, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, sliced

6 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 parsnips, peeled and cubed
1-2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 big can (16oz) of organic diced tomatoes, or the equivalent of freshed diced tomatoes
1 liter of chicken broth
a bunch of beet greens (from 3 beets) or other leafy greens, such as kale or swiss chard, washed and chopped
dried oregano, rosemary, parsley, basil, whatever you want to play with. You can also add these herbs fresh if you have them in your garden or fridge. I love fresh basil and parsley and I add them one hour before serving.
Salt and pepper to taste

Put everything in the crockpot, with the beans, then onions and garlic, then crunchy veggies, tomatoes, cover with broth, and greens on top. Sprinkle with herbs. Cook on slow for 8 hours or on fast for 5-6 hours.

Serve with brown rice and sprinkle with parmesan cheese (optional) for a complete meal.

chicken bone broth to heal your gut, and that nasty cold...

One thing I have learnt about at the Real Food Symposium, and which I have definitely started to implement, along with fermented vegetables, is bone broth. I had occasionally made a soup with leftover bones from a chicken or from that Thanksgiving turkey, and they always turned out delicious, but there I learnt a whole new level of bone broth making, and discovered the health benefits of our grandmothers' traditional recipe.

If you haven't heard of the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) diet yet, and you suffer from low immunity, asthma, allergies, arthritis, ADHD, Autism, MS, Chronic Fatigue and Arthritis, among other conditions, you might want to take a look at it. The whole focus of this diet is to heal and seal the gut lining, so that you can better absorb nutrients and allow them to heal and nourish your body. Bone broth is a crucial part of the diet and plays a soothing role on the gut.

- When made properly, bone broth contains a gelatin which assists digestion by attracting digestive juices to itself and preventing gastrointestinal bugs from attaching themselves to the gut wall and wreaking havoc.

- It is loaded with minerals (calcium, silicon, sulphur, magnesium, phosphorus and trace minerals). All these minerals present in bones are macro-minerals which are essential for proper nutrition. Minerals are important, not only for our bones, but also for other functions in the body. The body with draw those minerals from our bones and tissues if it isn't fed enough of them, to maintain steady levels of minerals in the blood and other fluids, which can then cause other issues (deficiencies) such as inflammation, camps, muscle spasms, delusions, depression, insomnia, irritability, hyperactivity, anxiety, palpitations, hypertension, allergies, periodontal and dental disease, osteoporosis, etc, etc...

- bone broth is helpful in treating digestive disorders

- the gelatin in the broth tonifies blood and helps with anemia and other blood disorders. It also helps neutralizing any intestinal poison present during an intestinal bug or flu.

- in bone broth, we use cartilaginous parts of animals, like chicken feet or necks, which have a high concentration of glycosaminoglycans and help with conditions such as arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, decreased immune system states and malnutrition

- Collagen, which is another word for gelatin (which is in broth), along with minerals are needed for the creation and healing of bone. It is also integral to cartilage formation and repair.

- broth also contains, Chondroitin Sulfate, a jellylike substance, used as a supplement for joint pain due to osteoarthritis. It functions to support and provide adhesiveness. It lines blood vessels and plays a role in lowering atherosclerosis, cholesterol and heart attacks.

- broth can be thought of as a protein supplement, and a calcium supplement. The chemical ingredients extracted from broth are glycine and proline (collagen/gelatin), calcium and phosphorus (minerals), hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate (GAGs), and other minerals, amino acids and GAGs in smaller amounts.

If I haven't convinced you yet, or if I have bored you with all these details, just go back to the roots: didn't your mother or grandmother always suggest chicken soup when you had a cold? And since it is cold season, I figured it might be a good time to share the recipe, even though I have been making it all summer and have bags of frozen broth in my freezer.

You will need:

A whole organic free range chicken

2 or more chicken feet (read below to see where to find that)

and/or 2 chicken necks

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

an onion

a bunch of carrots

a bunch of celeri (or one gallon of chopped vegetables and/or scraps)

a bunch of parsley

2-3 bay leaves

1 tbsp peppercorns

filtered water

Place your chicken in a large chicken pot, with the feet and necks, and cover with iced water. Add 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar and let it rest for 30 minutes, with the lid on. The vinegar helps to draw the mineral salts out of the bone. 

After 30 minutes, bring to a boil and skim off the scum or foam that appears at the surface once it starts boiling. Add the onion, vegetables, bay leaves and peppercorns. Reduce flame on low and let it cook for an hour. 

Then remove the chicken, which should be cooked by now, and remove the flesh off the bones. You can use the meat for different dishes. Replace the bones in the stock pot, and let it cook on low for at least 5-6 hours, up to twenty hours. At this point, if you are not going to be home for that long, you can transfer everything into your crockpot and let it cook in there for as long as you want. The longer you cook it, the more minerals you are going to get from it. 

One hour before the end of cooking, add the parsley. When you are done cooking the broth, you can let it cool a bit, or you can sift the liquid and toss the bones and veggies right away and THEN let it cool or drink right away. I sometimes grab a few of the veggies, making sure there are no bones left in the mix, and use some of the broth to make a soup right there and then.

I then let the rest of the broth cool and when it is relatively cold, I pour some in ice cube trays for freezing, or in muffin pans or other containers. You can use your broth to cook any meat or veggies, to make gravy, to cook your rice or quinoa in, or as is. The possibilities are endless. I use it mostly to make soups, which I love this time of year.

It is a pretty greasy broth, because the chicken skin gives out a lot of fat too. If you don't like how greasy it is, you could also just use bones.

You are probably wondering where to find chicken feet and necks (and yes, that is a chicken foot sticking out of that broth :)... If you go to your local Farmer's market, find the stall where they sell meat. Make sure it is grass fed/cage free and organic, and ask for those items. Dey Dey, who you will find at different markets in the LA area, namely Pasadena and South Pasadena, sells them frozen by the bag. I bought two bags 6 months ago, kept them in my freezer, and just finished them this week. I have made several batches of broth in 6 months.

So stay healthy this winter, and all year round, with that good old-fashioned chicken broth your grandma raved about :)

Raw Greenylicious Herb Soup

Obviously, I am in the mood for summer soups these days. I was browsing one of my favorite blogs and stumbled upon this rawfully tempting soup recipe, which she herself had found on this other really cool blog. So I'm going to do just what she did: borrow it and share it further. I can't take the credit for it, except that I modified the quantities a little bit and added lime juice.

So without further due, here is the super easy, 10 minute prep recipe:

1.5 medium sized Avocado
4 stalks of Celery, finely chopped
1 large handful of roughly chopped Cilantro
1 small handful of roughly chopped Mint
1.5 cup Coconut water
1 cup cold water
juice of 1 lime1 small tsp of Himalayan salt/Celtic sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground Black pepper
Some fresh garden cress for decoration and final flavor touch

Cut and scoop out the avocados in a large bowl or a high speed blender.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix with a hand blender or in the high speed blender. Keep refrigerated. Serve chilled.

En Francais:
1.5 avocat
4 branches de celeri coupe fin
1 grande poignee de coriandre frais, hache
une petit poignee de menthe fraiche, hachee
1.5 tasse d'eau de coco (a ne pas confondre avec le lait de coco)
1 tasse d'eau fraiche
le jus d'un citron vert
1 cc de sel marin
1cc de poivre

Verser le tout dans le mixer et mixer jusqu'a l'obtention d'une creme onctueuse. Mettre au frigo et servir frais.
garnir avec du cresson ou autre herbe fraiche.

Aragula Soup

It's almost summer and while we love soup in our family, the weather doesn't really call for a hot steaming soup. In the winter, I make lots of soups. It's an easy dinner to make or throw in the crock pot, and it's a sneaky way of getting the kids to eat vegetables.
Salad is still a big battle with our little one, though I'm hopeful for a turnaround at about 3 1/2 yrs old, just like it happened with my oldest.

The other night though, I got both of them to eat a big bowl of arugula! I found this appetizing recipe in Health magazine and thought I would give it a shot. I ended up adding the juice of a lime to give it a little spunk, and it was simply delicious. The next day, I ate it cold for dinner and added chickpeas in it for protein, and it was just as good. So here is a summer soup you can eat hot or chilled, that will pleasantly surprise your taste buds:

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in  a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add 1 chopped medium onion and 3 chopped garlic cloves; cook until translucent (5 minutes). Stir in 1 tsp cornstarch (I used arrowroot powder instead). Whisk in 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth and 1/2 cup low-fat evaporated milk (I used soy milk or you could use coconut milk or regular milk). Stir in 1 1/2-2 bags of arugula (7oz each). The original recipe called for baby arugula, but I just used regular. Add 1/4 cup mixed chopped herbs (mint, chives, parsley, basil, tarragon, oregano, etc... Stir until wilted. Cover and set aside for 5 minutes. Squeeze in a whole lime and mix in. Use an immersion blender to blend until smooth. Divide among 6 bowls and garnish each with 2tsp plain greek yogourt and 1tsp sliced chives (I used lemon thyme). Salt and pepper to taste.

Of course, the boys added some grated parmesan in their soup :)

En Francais:

Chauffer une cs d'huile d'olive dans une grande casserole, a feu  moyen. Ajouter un oignon hache et trois gousses d'ail hachees. Faire revenir pendant 5 minutes. Ajouter 1 cc de maizena, . Melanger au fouet 6 tasses de bouillon de poule et 1/2 tasse de lait ou lait de coco. Ajouter 2 sachets d'aragula fraiche et 1/4 de tasse d'herbes fraiches (menthe, persil, tarragon, ciboulette, basilique, thym citronne, etc...), melanger jusqu'a ce que les feuilles se ramolissent. Couvrir et laisser reposer 5 minutes. Puis ajouter le jus d'un citron vert, sel et poivre a volonter, et mixer le tout jusqu'a l'obtention d'une creme lisse. repartir dans 6 bols et ajouter 2 cc de sere ou sere maigre et une cc de ciboulette hachee. parmesan si vous le souhaitez. Moi je n'avais pas de ciboulette alors j'ai utilise du thym citronne.

Cette soupe peut se consommer chaude ou froide. Bon appetit!