Nutritious Homemade Soup Recipes for Easy Meals

When the weather even hints at becoming cooler, I start looking for my favorite soup recipes. There are so many reasons to stock your freezer with jars of soup. Soup is packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, all which are needed to build a strong immune system. At the moment, my freezer is filled with homemade broth and 3 different types of soup. That means easy access to a delicious, nutritious meal any day of the week for myself or others.

Before deciding which soup to make, I first make broth. The variety I make the most is chicken broth. I begin this process by eating bone-in chicken. Sometimes it’s a whole chicken, and other times it’s individual pieces of chicken such as thighs, drumsticks, breasts or wings. Each time I finish the meat from the bone, I add the bones to a container I have in the freezer. When I have enough bones, it’s time to make broth. Not only do I make soup with the broth, but I also use it as a warm drink that is healing and nutritious.

Choosing and Combining Favorite Soups

I have made many chicken soup recipes throughout the years, and kept coming back to 2 favorite ones: The best chicken soup you’ll ever eat, and Detox immune-boosting soup. As I was trying to decide which one to make, I set them side by side. They had so many similarities, with some key differences. One was a more basic recipe, with lots of garlic and the addition of mushrooms (one of my favorite foods). The other was more complex with more fresh herbs and aromatics. I decided to combine them to get the best of both worlds, thus a tale of two soups. This combination is now one of my go-to nutritious homemade soup recipes that I recommend to friends and family.

Does a long list of ingredients intimidate you? Don’t let it! None of the ingredients are a must, but each one does have its own unique flavor profile and nutritional value. The best strategy I can recommend when making a meal is to double the recipe so that you cook once and eat numerous times. On those days when I don’t have time to cook, I pull a container from my freezer. These soups are some of the easiest and most comforting, nutritious homemade soup recipes you can prepare ahead of time.

Why We Love Soup

During the cooler months of the year, not only is the air dry, but our sun exposure decreases. This combined with an increase in our activities, more exposure to sugary and processed food, and potentially a decrease in sleep, is a perfect time to add a nourishing soup to your menu. Every body system will thank you.

The Healing Power of Homemade Broth

I remember the first time I made soup from properly prepared broth. This is broth made with lots of bones containing knuckles, joints and chicken feet, and simmered on my stove for 6 hours or in a crock pot for 24 hours. It’s also broth that turns into a gel in the refrigerator. I had never tasted soup so delicious.

Homemade broth/stock has gelatin, which provides collagen, that supports tissues in the body including skin, hair, nails, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and bones. Collagen also supports the lining of our blood vessels and our digestive track.

Protecting Your Body from Modern Toxins

Are you familiar with glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup? Along with many other effects, it disrupts the body’s ability to build healthy collagen. With its extensive use in modern agriculture, nourishing ourselves with soup made from homemade broth is more important than ever. When the collagen is disrupted in the blood vessels, this can cause damage to the arterial walls, leading to atherosclerosis. When the damage is in the digestive track, it can cause reduced absorption of nutrients, and intestinal permeability.

To learn more about the relationship between glyphosate and collagen, read this article by Stephan Seneff, PHD, one of the leading researcher scientists on glyphosate, Glyphosate in Collagen. It is not difficult to avoid or reduce Roundup exposure in your diet. Drink filtered water and use the same water in your cooking, prioritize organic produce, and organic, pasture-raised meat. To learn more about which produce has the highest chemical residue, look at Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list, The Dirty Dozen.

The vegetables and herbs in soup are broken down slowly in the broth, leaving them more digestible and flavorful. Whether you’re in the picture of health or working on improving yours, soup is a great addition for a burst of nutrition. These nutritious homemade soup recipes make it easy to enjoy healthful meals any day of the week.

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon ghee, avocado or olive oil

1 Onion chopped

2-3 Celery chopped

2-3 Carrots chopped

Once oil is hot, add above ingredients to a Dutch oven or soup pot and cook until onions are translucent.

1 Tablespoon grated fresh turmeric

1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger

7-10 cloves chopped fresh garlic depending on the size of garlic clove

1 Cup assorted mushrooms of your choice – I love shiitake for the umami flavor it brings

Add ingredients to the pot and sauté for a few minutes.

8 Cups homemade or organic chicken broth

2 Bay leaves

½ Teaspoon crushed red pepper

1-1 ½ Teaspoons sea salt to taste

Freshly milled black pepper to taste

1 Cup Israeli couscous if desired (a larger variety of couscous)

1 Teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

1 Teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

1 Square of Kombu cut in to pieces (This is a dried seaweed, found in the Japanese section of a grocery store or an Asian market)

Add ingredients and bring to a boil

1 Cup frozen peas

1 Cup cooked chicken (I prefer thigh meat) or more if desired

2 Cups chopped mixed greens of your choice

Add and cook until hot and enjoy.

About the Author: Lisa Schumacher is a graduate of NTI’s Certified Natural Food Chef program, a Registered Nurse and Holistic Practitioner at Foundations Wellness. She is passionate about helping people learn how to nourish themselves. Whether it’s one on one, in a class setting, or in a consultation, inspiring and teaching others how to create delicious, nutritious food is her happy place. She loves to introduce people to foods they never expected to eat. To learn more about Lisa or to work with her, go to Foundations Wellness.

Image by Lisa Schumacher