After a little break from the socials and consulting, with Crazy Covid taking over our lives, I’m back with lots of new recipes and ideas to get healthy through winter, plus help get rid of the covid kilos! This soup is a perfect one to start with…. 

This soup is a little bit like my Skinny Soup – use it to replace one meal each day per week and you’ll be well on your way to feeling better in your skin. Its a little bowl of health, literally. Its full of immune boosting nutrients such as garlic oil, turmeric, ginger, chilli and most importantly the shitake mushrooms and coconut milk. Both of these bad boys, are anti – viral in nature, so super good for our immune systems, especially for these covid days we are living in!

So cook up a big batch this weekend – its tasty enough for the whole family, but if you want to get yourself sorted for next week, separate it into 6 containers and freeze some. Don’t be put off by all the ingredients, its still a super easy soup to make. Its all these beautiful ingredients that make it a highly nutritious soup. 

 

Ingredients:

(serves 6)

• 1 tbsp garlic oil (or olive oil or chilli oil)
• 500g chicken breast, sliced in to cubes
• 5 x spring onions (green part only for FODMAPPERS)
• 2 kefir lime leaves, sliced into thin strips
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari is even better)
• 1 tbsp ginger, either grated or minced
• 1 tbsp turmeric, either grated or powdered
• 1 pinch chilli flakes 
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 cup zucchini, diced
• 1 cup sweet potato, peeled and diced
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 L Mama Megs Chicken Stock paste (or chicken stock)
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 x can lentils
• 1 x cup kale, stems removed
• 1 x tin coconut milk
• 150g shitake mushrooms (either fresh or dried)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Shredded spring onions and chilli to garnish. 

 

Method

In a pot heat garlic oil and saute the chicken with the spring onions, soy sauce and shitake mushrooms for a few minutes. Add  carrot, celery, zucchini, sweet potato and salt and cook for a further 5 minutes, adding water if the pan starts to stick.

Add the ginger and turmeric and stir through.

Pour in the quinoa, Mama Megs chicken stock and the boiling water.

Add salt, pepper, kefir lime leaves and a pinch of chilli flakes.

Simmer for 20 minutes , then add the lentils and kale for a further 5 minutes. Stir through the coconut milk for a minute or two until heated through.

 

Remove the kefir lime leaves if you don’t like the crunchiness of them and stir in the lime juice. Garnish with spring onions and extra chilli if you like it hot. Remember chilli is good for metabolism!

 

NOTES 

 

For FODMAPERS and those who struggle to digest fructose, unfortunately Shitake mushrooms are not FODMAP  friendly. You can basically consume 2 mushrooms per serving, before it may set you off. Just swap it out for champignon mushrooms or leave out altogether – its still a super immune boosting soup. 

          Being a FODMAPer myself, I always cook with garlic oil and spring onions but              for those normal human beings (as my little Ivy calls it!) normal onion and                  garlic is absolutely fine to use and would make it even better for your                            immune system.