Soup-er Powers of Soup
Soup-er powers of soup
A delicious bowl of soup or tasty broth makes for quick and easy comfort food. Apart from the convenience factor, soup can be surprisingly nourishing for your body and do your soul a lot of good. With minimal effort soup, can become your go-to comfort food for a quick, satisfying and healthy meal.
And when it comes to ingredient choice we are lucky to have so much wonderful produce at our fingertips to create a delicious concoction to warm our bellies!
Let’s face it, soups are pretty easy to make. You can make a bowl of hearty soup or delicious broth with only a few ingredients, which can have a lot of health benefits. Soups are one of the easiest ways to add vegetables packed with nutrients, to daily meals.
Especially when we are reminded by health professionals that a healthy diet includes five serves of veggies each day.
Nutritious boost
But beyond these obvious benefits you can give your soups the ultimate food restorative upgrade by adding anti-inflammatory, immune system boosting and antioxidant rich ingredients like turmeric, ginger, pepper and garlic. These ingredients are the ideal choice for warding off those annoying winter colds.
Other common health-boosting soup ingredients include onions, mushrooms and herbs. This is where products such as Latasha’s Kitchen Coriander Curry Paste come into their own when added to a lentil and vegetable-based soup recipe.
By way of example, Latasha’s Kitchen Thai Red Curry Paste is made from dried red chillies, shrimp paste, cilantro root, cumin, garlic, herbs and spices and can be the base for a tasty and nutritious seafood Thai style laksa broth loaded with herbs and veggies.
While Latasha’s Kitchen Thai Green Curry Paste is made with fresh green chillies and aromatic herbs including coriander, basil, white pepper, wild ginger and lemongrass.
Both of these products have lashings of health-boosting ingredients in them!
Health benefits
Ginger, widely known as a digestive and anti-nausea aid and considered to have antiviral and antimicrobial properties. It is also great for relieving stomach complaints, nausea and calming a sore throat. Ginger is a very warming spice making it the perfect addition to winter-warmer soups.
Turmeric’s benefits, known for thousands of years have seen resurgence in recent years due to the rise of the Turmeric Latte trend. Turmeric is a staple of Ayurvedic medicine and is a major ingredient in curry powder.
Latasha’s Kitchen Indonesian Turmeric Kari Paste combines many of these ingredients and can be used to make a wonderful bone broth recipe using gelatinous goat, chicken or beef bones. Perfect to soothe and aide in the recovery of aching muscles, limbs and joint pain.
Further research shows that turmeric may also help improve your memory. One thing for sure is that turmeric’s flavour is sure to add the wow factor to any culinary creation!
Garlic and onions contribute to the immune system health as natural antibiotics. Research shows that garlic contains a compound called allicin which has potent medicinal properties, and is also highly nutritious. While pepper improves digestion, as well as having anti-bacterial qualities and antioxidant potential.
Nutrient retention
An important benefit from cooking vegetables, herbs and meat in soup, is they retain more nutrients than when baked or stir-fried. Soups are easily refrigerated or frozen for later consumption and often improve in flavour the next day.
Soup-er ideas
Here are some of Latasha’s Kitchen delicious soup and broth recipes that will help restore and recharge you:
- West African Chicken Peanut Soup
- Spring Minestrone Soup
- Khitchari
- Fragrant Thai Massaman Broth
- Tasty Thai Red Pumpkin Soup
- Hayley’s Delicious Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup
- Spinach Dahl Lentil Stew
- Thai Red Laksa
- Thai Green Chicken Broth with Mushrooms
Until next time, Latasha
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