When you’re all plugged up with a cold, or you have the chills, there’s nothing quite like a bowl of steamy soup to make you feel better.
It turns out there are reasons for this feeling, and scientists agree there are biological responses that occur when the right combination of ingredients make up a bowl of soup.
A bowl of broth when under the weather was prescibed as early as the 12th century. when the Jewish physican Maimonides recommended it as a form of medicince, Hence, the association of the Jewish mother feeding her ailing child a cup of soup, which may be clear broth or a garlic-infused chicken soup.
Most of us believe there is much more to healing than just medicine. And perhaps if we take Aristotles’ famous quote “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine thy food”, we would reach for a healing food before anything else.
If you are feeling under the weather, save your body’s energy for healing and eat very light; focus on liquids that are room temperature or warmer. Rest and avoid over exerting yourself.
But for everyday nourishment that helps you avoid catching colds there’s nothing like a hearty bowl of soup. Chicken soup is an old stand-by so I will start with that.
Let’s look at the elements of a good chicken soup. Begin by setting out the ingredients, using fresh items as much as possible. It goes without saying there will be chicken if you’re making chicken soup; use boneless, skinless organic chicken and prepare it ahead of your other ingredients, setting it aside until you are ready to combine everything.
Then decide what vegetables you wish to add: I include organic celery, carrots, ginger, onion and garlic. I may add additional herbs like basil or ciiantro. If you want to go even heartier, add brown rice and just before turning off the stove, add a couple of handsful of organic spinach or baby kale.
And of course, all this is prepared in a generous portion of organic chicken broth.
I’d like to invite you to join me on a Zoom call this Friday at 10 a.m. where we can make a pot of soup
together. When you sign up I’ll send you the Zoom link along with the ingredients list. This will be a test class to see how cooking together via Zoom works for you. If it’s a hit, I’ll schedule a series of 4 sessions where we make a different soup each week.