Eat to Feel Better
Tanya Steel
With 100 million Americans dealing with snow, ice, and snice right now (note to self: trademark snice), a big bowl of soup, packed with immune-boosting ingredients and whipped up in a matter of minutes, is just what the doctor ordered. Try one of these 10 super soups before you head out to shovel a foot of snow or chip away at the ice.
Carrot and Toasted Almond Soup: Bugs Bunny would love this 30-minute soup, as it packs 1 1/2 pounds of carrots into four servings (that’s about 4 carrots in every bowl), along with flavor-enhancing shallots, curry and ginger powders, and toasted almonds, a nut that’s rich in vitamin E and magnesium.
Curried Sweet Potato Soup: In 20 minutes you can boil and puree this nutritious soup. Vegetable broth cuts the thickness of beta-carotene rich sweet potato, and curry powder has been shown to help reduce the severity of colds by thinning mucus.
Cream of Cauliflower Soup: Ginger and curry powder add a spicy healthy kick to this creamy soup made with an entire head of cauliflower, a vegetable that is rich in choline, which helps regulate the gastrointestinal tract. It’s cooked, pureed, and ready to eat in half an hour.
Spinach and Lime Soup: Admittedly an unusual combination, but it works: Spinach (iron), cilantro, and lime (vitamin C) enhance chicken broth and come together in a sweet five minutes.
Garlic Soup with Poached Eggs: An entire head of garlic gives this 15-minute broth a heady fragrance and a good dose of antioxidants, plus the low-calorie eggs are rich in protein and vitamin D.
Cabbage Soup: This crunchy vegetable is prized in China, and indeed horded for the winter by many Chinese, particularly for its glutamine (an antioxidant). It plays well with others, especially this soup’s green beans, carrots, and green bell peppers—all high in vitamin C and A—all cooked in a speedy 15 minutes.
Kale and Chickpea Soup: One can of fiber-rich chickpeas and four cups of cholesterol-lowering kale are given a strong dose of flavor with spicy chorizo, all in 25 short minutes.
Spicy Asian Chicken Soup: Twenty minutes is all that’s required to cook up an Asian spin on the classic chicken soup. This pencillin in a bowl has vitamin B-rich chicken, shittake mushrooms, high in selenium, and snap peas and bell peppers, which are redolent in vitamins A and C.
Broccoli and Parsnip Soup: The unsung parsnip does double duty in this recipe, providing fiber, potassium, and a velvety texture, as well as a subtle counterpoint to the vitamin A and C rich broccoli.
Lentil Soup: A classic iron-rich lentil soup doesn’t take hours to make—this one is whipped up in 25 minutes—and it only takes seconds to lap up. Recipe below!
LENTIL SOUP
Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 carrot, halved lengthwise and sliced thin crosswise
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small bay leaf
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/3 cup chopped smoked ham
1/2 cup finely chopped drained bottled roasted red peppers
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, or to taste
Preparation:
In a heavy saucepan cook the carrot, the onion, the garlic, and the bay leaf in the oil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened. Stir in the broth and the lentils and simmer the mixture, covered partially, stirring occasionally, for 25 minutes. Stir in the ham, the roasted peppers, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, the vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste and cook the soup for 1 minute. Discard the bay leaf, divide the soup between 2 bowls, and garnish it with the remaining 1 tablespoon parsley.
