Who doesn’t love the incredibly warm, cozy comforting feeling of a warm bowl of soup for the soul, especially after a stressful day/ week/ month. It helps reduce anxiety, calms your nervous system, boost your energy and improves your mood. Here are the top reasons why cooking a big batch of soup is soooo good for the soul right now.
Soothing + Calming - soups and warm liquids in general have a calming effect on our body, which helps cancel out cortisol caused by stress, and less stress helps support our health and well-being.
Nutrient dense - soup retains all of the vitamins and minerals from the ingredients in the broth, which we often lose by sautéing, steaming, or boiling. So when you slow cook a soup, it becomes a nutrient dense broth full of all the healthy goodness from plants.
Immune Boosting - soup helps boost our immune system, not only for the healthy ingredients + rich broth, but a hot bowl of soup helps raise our core body temperature which helps fight off illness.
Anti-inflammatory - soups that use garlic, ginger + turmeric have anti-inflammatory properties which helps reduce aches + pains.
Hydrating - soup is also super hydrating as it contains lots of water and salts which helps us retain liquid and keep us hydrated.
Self-care - taking the time to cook for yourself is one of the most nourishing things we can do for our health. When we prepare our own meals and ingredients, the gentle, soft, loving and caring energy you are putting into that meal is ingested straight into our body. This is the highest form of self-love! Which we all need more than ever.
Soup:
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 large leek, sliced whites only
4 stalks of celery, sliced into moons
2 bay leaves dry or fresh
2 teaspoons dried Italian herbs
5 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 large orange carrots, diced
4 cups chopped zucchini (about 4 medium)
4 cups fresh Roma tomatoes, chopped
2 cartons of chicken bone broth or vegetable broth
5 cups baby spinach leaves
2 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Toppings:
½ cup fresh parsley
½ fresh lemon
Nutritional yeast
1. Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot over low-medium heat. Add the onion, celery, leeks and carrots to the pot and sauté for a couple of minutes, until softened about 5 mins.
2. Add the Italian herbs, bay leaves, black pepper, garlic and sauté another minute. Stir in the zucchini and tomatoes and continue to sauté a few more minutes until veggies begin to get tender.
3. Once vegetables are just tender to fork add the stock and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low and simmer for around 20mins. Watch your zucchini, you don’t want it to loose colour. Turn off heat.
4. When you are ready to serve, add in the fresh baby spinach leaves and stir until it begins to wilt, about 3 mins. Remove from heat and stir in extra salt and pepper to your taste.
5. Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with fresh parsley, and nutritional yeast flakes on top.
6. Let the soup cool, and then store in mason jars in the fridge for up to 7 days, and freezer for 3 months.
7. Find a cozy quiet place to sit down, take a deep breath before you start bless the food, be grateful for this meal + ENJOY!
