Golden Soul Healing Chicken Super Soup
Bone Broth
Ingredients
Chicken
carcass (I used 1 free range chicken carcass, bones from organic chicken pieces
and ½ duck carcass)
1 Organic
Onion (topped and tailed but skin left on)
2 Organic
carrots
1 bunch of
fresh herbs (I used thyme, parsley, chives and coriander)
2 Ltrs
water (enough to cover the bones plus about an inch)
Bring to
the boil and simmer gently for 2-3 hours.
The bones should be falling to pieces and the broth a nice golden
colour.
Leave to cool
slightly and drain broth through a colander into a large saucepan.
Make the Soup
Ingredients
Cooked,
cold diced meat from 1 chicken leg or breast
1 medium
sweet potato, diced.
1 small ½
inch cube ginger chopped finely
1 garlic
clove minced and set aside
1 dessert
spoon of coconut oil
½ can
Organic Coconut Milk
1 teaspoon
turmeric
A good
pinch of black pepper
Salt to
taste (Herbamere or Sea Salt)
Method
You should
have around 1 ½ litres of bone broth.
Put all the ingredients apart from the garlic and the coconut milk into
the broth and bring back to the boil.
Simmer until sweet potato is soft.
Add coconut
milk and crushed garlic and stir in.
Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour back into saucepan,
season to taste and serve.
Nutrition
at a glance
Bone broth contains valuable minerals in a form
your body can easily absorb and use, including calcium, magnesium, phosphorus,
silicon, glucosamine and other trace minerals and in the words of Dr
Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of the book ‘Gut and Psychology Syndrome GAPS’,
bone broth ‘heals and seals’ your gut.
Sweet Potatoes contain
carotenes and vitamin C making them an excellent antioxidant food. They also
contain b vitamins.
Fresh Root Ginger is excellent for relieving symptoms of
gastrointestinal stress and is also known for its anti nausea and
anti-inflammatory properties.
Garlic is well known for its medicinal properties. Chopping
or crushing the raw garlic and leaving it for a few minutes stimulates the enzymatic
reaction that produces allicin, the compound to which most of the health
benefits are attributed. Due to allicin it has antimicrobial and antibacterial
activity and has shown to be effective against infections such as colds, flu
and stomach viruses. Due to its sulphur
content it aids liver detoxification and has also demonstrated blood pressure
lowering properties in many studies.
Coconut oil contains medium chain fatty acids that are
absorbed immediately into your cells for energy. It is anti-microbial and helps to kill
pathogenic bacteria in the gut and feed the good guys. It is neuroprotective
and boasts a host of other health benefits.
In this soup it is also helping the turmeric
to be more easily absorbed by the body. Turmeric is anti-inflammatory,
antiseptic and antibiotic and it also increases the release of digestive
enzymes that break down fats and carbohydrates. By adding black pepper to turmeric containing foods you are greatly
increasing its bioavailability.
This soup helps to heal your gut. Why is this important? The state of our gut plays a vital role in our
overall wellness. More than 2000 years ago Hippocrates said ‘all disease begins
in the gut’. It is known now that 70% of
the cells that make up our immune system are found in the wall of the intestines
and up to 80% of our nervous system. The
enteric nervous system, as it is known, is referred to as our ‘second brain’
and sends information to our brain via the vagus nerve. Around 30 neurotransmitters, including our
happy hormone serotonin, are produced here by the good bacteria resident in our
intestines using vitamins and minerals absorbed from our food. Our current western diet which is low in
fibre and nutrients, and full of refined carbohydrates and sugar, promotes the overgrowth
of pathogenic bacteria. They in turn produce toxins and stop the good guys
breaking down and absorbing nutrients from our food and, if not kept in check, will
damage the gut wall. This can lead to a condition called ‘leaky gut syndrome’. Our immune system then has to deal with ‘foreign’
substances that pass through our gut wall that should not have made it into our
bloodstream, causing low grade chronic inflammation and initiating food
intolerances with symptoms such as hay-fever, eczema, pain and stiffness,
concentration issues and a foggy head to name but a few! If the good bacteria are not restored and the
gut healed, these symptoms will persist, further compromising our immunity and
seriously affecting overall health in the long term. As you can see, it’s a very good idea to be
kind to your gut.
