Calendula Carrot Soup

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup sweet Vidalia onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 cup Granny Smith apple, chopped

1/2 cup raw peanuts, chopped in food processor

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cumin

2 pounds carrots, chopped

4 cups vegetable or chicken stock

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 tablespoon dried calendula petals

In a large stockpot, melt butter over medium low heat. Add onion and garlic, sauté until they turn translucent. Add apple and peanuts, cinnamon, nutmeg and cumin. Continue to cook for 3 minutes. Add carrots and cook for 5 minutes over a low heat, stirring intermittently. Pour in stock, cover

and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Add calendula and simmer for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before pouring into a blender or food processor. Puree until smooth. Return to pot and stir in coconut milk. Cook over a medium low heat for 5 minutes. Do not let it come to a boil. Serves 4 - 6.

Calendula is a mildly bitter herb and therefore good for the liver. The flowers are medicinal and can be used as a spice to add color and a subtle, yet distinctive flavor reminiscent of saffron. Sometimes called poor man's saffron, or Egyptian saffron, it is similarly employed as a yellow dye for fabrics, cheese and cosmetics. Learn more in my book, Wisdom of the Plant Devas: Herbal Medicine for a New Earth.

You can also learn more in my work-at-your-own pace class, Love Your Liver: Spring and the Wood Element.

Bright & Beautiful Butternut Curry Soup

eeny, meeny, miny, moe

photo by Thea

2 medium butternut cut in half length wise

4 tablespoons peanut oil, or 2 Tbs. sesame oil & 2 Tbs. coconut oil

2 Tbsp. curry powder

2 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp red pepper flakes

6 garlic cloves

2 quarts chicken broth

1 can unsweetened coconut milk

juice of 1 lime

sea salt

black pepper

½ cup chopped cilantro

Bake squash face down in baking dish for one hour at 400 degrees.  Let cool.

Meanwhile,  sauté curry powder, ginger, cumin and red pepper flakes until fragrant. Add garlic and sauté until it begins to color.  Remove from heat.

Scoop flesh from squash, discarding seeds, and put ½ in blender with ½ broth and ½ spices.  Process until smooth and transfer into soup pot. Repeat with remaining squash, broth and spices.

Add coconut milk, lime juice, salt and pepper to taste and heat through.  Add cilantro just before serving.

Miso Soup

  

A fantastically light, satisfying and healing soup for warming the digestive system.

6 cups bonito stock (dashi)

½ cup bonito flakes

5 inch piece of kombu

½ carrot sliced into half moons

½ cup daikon sliced into half moons

6 inch piece of wakame

1-2 scallions sliced

½ cup organic sprouted tofu chopped

¼ cup brown or red miso

Tamari to taste

To make stock:

Bring 6 cups water and a 5-inch piece of kombu to a boil. Boil for a couple of minutes then add bonito flakes, stir, remove from heat and strain.

Simmer bonito stock with carrot and daikon for 5-10 minutes. Soak wakame during this time. Chop and add to soup along with scallions and tofu. Simmer 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. Dissolve miso in some stock and then add back to soup pot. Add tamari to taste.

Learn more about nourishing your Earth Element at "Indian Summer: Nourishing the Earth Element" an online class taught by Mentor, Dr. Thea Summer Deer at Wise Woman University. 

Cream of Potato-Leek Soup

 In the exuberance of spring this year I planted a raised bed vegetable garden.  Previously we had tilled the existing ground and planted what was most inclined to grow there.  But I wanted more.  I wanted things that grew deeper like carrots, potatoes, onions and leeks.  So I hauled a bunch of organic manure from Carpe Diem Farms, and hay bales to use as retaining walls. Hay bales compost at the end of the season, retain moisture during dry spells, keep the bed warm when it gets cold and protect the garden from wind and driving rain. My efforts were rewarded with a generous row of leeks that made their way into this fragrant and heart warming soup.  Leeks are frost tolerant and can be grown (organically of course!) in the early spring and late summer for a fall crop. They take approximately 95 days to harvest.

2 quarts organic vegetable or chicken stock

3 large leeks or 4-5 smaller ones including some greens

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

4 russet potatoes, scrubbed and quartered

freshly ground black pepper and sea salt to taste

¼  teaspoon white pepper

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

½ teaspoon granular kelp

½  cup heavy organic cream

2 tablespoons organic sour cream

Prepare leeks by cutting down the center lengthwise and wash thoroughly.  Remove the tough outer greens and trim the tops. Add leeks, caraway seeds, and bay leaf to broth and simmer for 20 minutes. Add potatoes, kelp, salt and pepper, cover and simmer another 20 minutes. Add parsley and simmer until potatoes fall apart.  Remove from heat and cool.  Puree in blender, return to pot, add cream and sour cream and heat through.  Serve with fresh baked bread and garnish with parsley and/or toasted ground caraway seeds.

Jamaican Black Bean Soup

Jamaican Black Bean Soup

From Thea’s Kitchen

Adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for a Better World

2.5 cups dried black beans

1 quart veggie stock or water

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons oil

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 potato, diced or grated

1 carrot, diced or grated

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, pressed

1 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon cumin

¼ teaspoon savory

¼ teaspoon fair trade cinnamon

dash allspice

¼ teaspoon fair trade black pepper

1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

2 tablespoons tamari

1-2 limes

garnish: yogurt and chopped onion

Wash beans and soak overnight in water in a glass, clay or enamel pot. Transfer beans to covered saucepan (or leave in enamel) add bay leaves and cover with water by about 1 inch. Bring to a full, rapid boil and then simmer for 1 hour. Meanwhile, sauté the celery, potato, carrot, onion, garlic, and fresh grated ginger in oil until the onion is tender. Add along with remaining spices to the beans and continue simmering for another hour or until beans are done. Add salt when beans are tender. Remove bay leaves, puree ½ the soup and return to saucepan. Stir in lime juice and tamari just before serving and warm through. Serve with a dollop of yogurt and chopped onion.

Rancho Gordo is a great resource for learning more about cooking beans or for ordering the best in heirloom beans. Check out this video on how to cook beans: