Related Posts

• Chilled Cucumber Dill Soup

  

  Summer is here in Colorado, and as we’re heading into week 1 of our June Group Cleanse, we’re looking for quick, veggie-based meals that don’t heat up the house. When the temperature rises, we reach for refreshing, water-rich summer veggies like cucumbers, and this is the perfect recipe! This soup is the ideal meal for a hot summer day. The avocado adds a creamy texture and the cucumber, lemon, and dill make the flavor light and refreshing. Pair it with a massaged kale salad and grilled chicken or salmon, top with hemp seeds or pumpkin seeds to make it a meal – or just enjoy it as is as a snack or a lighter lunch/dinner!

• Chickpea Miso Soup

  

  As many of us in the northern hemisphere approach the coldest weather of the year and flu season, I thought I would share with you my new favorite go-to soup when I feel under the weather. Over the years, as I’ve slowly worked to better my health with a plant-based diet, I’m usually a little puzzled as to what to eat when I get sick. When it comes down to surviving the flu, I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking chicken noodle soup, ginger ale, saltines, toast and jelly. And even though I haven’t had any of that stuff for a few decades (or the flu for that matter!), they’re still ingrained in my mind as flu comfort foods. What I know and live by, most importantly when I’m sick, is that whatever I’m going to eat has to be nourishing and healing, and not simply comforting – although all of the above would be nice. Aside from homemade chicken noodle soup, which isn’t going to happen when you’re sick unless mom lives nearby, none of the previously mentioned foods are going to support your immune system with any extra love. When you’re sick, boosting your immune system’s fighting power with nourishing, vitamin and mineral-filled food will help you feel better faster. As a veg-head who hasn’t eaten chicken noodle soup since high school, over the years I’ve turned to miso (pronounced mee-so) soup. Miso, which has its origins in Japan, is traditionally referred to as fermented soy. It’s known as an all-purpose, high-protein seasoning that’s most often used in soups, salad dressings and veggie dishes. It’s rich in vitamins, minerals and contains all eight essential amino acids. It also has quite a few healing benefits now back by scientific research – reduces the risk of heart disease, hypertension and breast cancer, to name a few.

• Big Kid Pumpkin Soup

  

  So summer is officially over (sadness) and autumn is upon on us, given that that is the usual order of the seasons, and the weather has already begun cooling down (sadness x2). However, the positive here is that soups and deliciously comforting foods begin to become a regular in the kitchen again. Today while looking in the fridge I couldn't help but notice an incredibly lovely looking whole pumpkin staring back at me - so naturally, I decided to chop it up, roast it and then zhoozh it up.

• Vegan Solyanka Soup

  

  Solyanka is an old Russian soup that, in its original form, always contains a lot of meat. The most classical version includes 7 different types of meat, including kidneys. So the recipe I am sharing with you is definitely not an authentic one, but it sure is delicious. I promise you that the taste is still very similar to the original one and is so much better for the body. If you have a meat addict in the house, feel free to let them add some meat products (leftover roast, frankfurters, salami, whatever they like) to the soup after it is ready. I do eat meat sometimes, but I don’t feel it is necessary to use it in this recipe, and I definitely would never add 7 different types of meat in my soup. Who would even have so many various meat products just lying around in the fridge? Anyway, meat or not – the essential things in this recipe are onions, pickles, black pepper, tomato paste, and olives.

• Cauliflower Soup with Crispy Chickpeas

  

  I sometimes have food ideas that pop into my mind and refuse to leave until I have tried out the recipe. That was the case with this soup. Chickpeas and cauliflower are such a beautiful combination that I often use in different curries and salads, but I've never made a soup of these ingredients. But now I just could not resist the appetite for a soup that is creamy and luscious, mildly spiced, but not spicy, and that warms up my body in cold and rainy Estonian spring. Not that I would be going outside much these days anyway – I don’t want to take the slightest risk that because of me, the virus will get a chance to spread, so I figure that it is better to stay home as much as possible. At least I have time to cook and practice yoga. and Yogadownload.com classes have been an excellent inspiration. Before the crisis I rarely had time for home practice, and if I did, I practiced myself.

• Celeriac and Barley Soup

  

  Over the last few weeks, I have made this soup several times. Soup, for me, is a perfect food for cold weather food and a few weeks ago in Estonia we still had thick snow covering all the streets and temperatures were frigid. Then we had a week of very rainy, windy, and cloudy weather, that melted almost all the snow, and it was still a good time for hot soup weather. And now for the last week, it has been colder again, but with a lot of sun and a real Spring feeling (even though there are still months to go until real Spring). I am almost sure I will make this soup at least once more before the weather gets warmer. And why shouldn’t I, it is delicious, healthy, full of winter veggies, and extremely nutritious being full of vitamins A and K, for example. I love all kinds of celery, but I know many people who don’t.