Top healing soups and when to use them

 As far back as we have written recipes, stews and broths have been used as healing foods.

According to the world’s oldest known recipes (1730 B.C.), the majority were prepared as stews and broths that contained a little meat plus herbs and spices like garlic, thyme, and leeks.[1]

These recipes are so old, they were written on clay tablets from Ancient Sumeria.[2] The knowledge they pounded into the clay was preserved and passed down to us.

Even older than the Ancient Sumerian tablets, in the oldest known medical text in the world, The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine (2697 to 2597 B.C.), rice soup was the first of 13 healing formulas, and its function was to strengthen energy.[3] [4]

Ancient humans were pretty smart when it came to using food to heal the body. They knew that soups and stews combined with herbs and spices, are an excellent way to deliver delicious medicine to the body.

As we come upon flu, cold, coronavirus, monkey pox, and every other virus you can imagine, I’m sharing with you my top healing soups, and ancient medicine techniques to keep you happy healthy and disease-free.

Savory Miso Soup

When I first dipped my toes in the healing arts over 25 years ago, Miso Soup was the FIRST recipe I ever prepared. It’s very simply and easy to make, and the healing benefits run deep inside the human body.

Miso soup is rich in iodine, due to the kelp seaweed, and that binds with radioactive strontium and heavy metals and excretes them from your system.

With the amount of radiation, heavy metals and other toxic residues we are exposed to on a daily basis, I highly recommend this soup at least a couple of times per week (or more) to keep your system running well.

Enjoy a delicious bowl of miso soup for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Your body will thank you for it.

Classic Chicken Soup

Yep, your grandmother knew best.

Even though she’s NOT listed as a recipe contributor in the ancient Sumerian texts, she knew that chicken soup was a superb healing recipe.

The main ingredient that makes chicken soup uber healing, is chicken stock. It’s rich in collagen, copper, selenium, sodium, b vitamins, and easily absorbable protein.

Keep some chicken stock in your freezer throughout the fall, winter and spring seasons, and you will always have medicine to put into a pot with healing herbs and spices like thyme, garlic, and rosemary.

Just warm it up and sip your sniffles away.

Chicken soup doesn’t need to be complicated to do its best work in your body.

When you’re feeling sick and run down, remember that the simpler the soup is, the better.

If you don’t have time to make an entire pot of soup with all of it’s parts and pieces, all you need to do is heat up some chicken stock with salt and pepper. Done!

Broth with Shiitake Mushrooms and Onions

When my husband and I were diagnosed with coronavirus in 2020, this healing broth was one of our go-to soup remedies for many reasons.

First and foremost, the shiitake mushroom broth is rich in healing nutrients that prevent cancer, support heart health and boost immunity.[5] It’s a no brainer as far as homemade medicine goes.

Plus, onions and garlic support gut health AND lung health, as they are rich in inulin that feeds your microbiome the nutrients they need to thrive. If you want healthy lungs, you’ve got to feed your microbiome. Read more about the gut-lung-microbiome connection here.

Beyond the nutritional science behind how this broth heals the gut and lungs, it is also VERY simple and delicious.

I’m a firm believer that when using food as medicine, it should be easy to prepare and taste really good.

This makes healing naturally at home, a much better option than filling your body up with toxic pharmaceutical medications that don’t actually heal anything.

Creamy Congee with Tuna and Tofu

Last but not least, I’m a BIG fan of the oldest healing recipe on record; rice soup.

Also known as Congee.

This soup nourishes spleen Qi, builds energy, and strengthens the body as a whole.

Plus, you can add just about anything into your congee.

Rice soup is just the base. You can also add:

• Onions
• Bok choy
• Carrots
• Cabbage
• Ginger
• Kale
• Mushrooms
• Squash
• Peppers
• Seaweed
• Tofu
• Kimchi
• Salmon
• Chicken
• Pork
• Beef

If you want to build your red and white blood cells, and nourish your immune system, you could also add astragalus and ginseng root into your rice soup, like in this recipe here: Immune Boosting congee

Just remember that when you are feeling run down or in the process of healing, keep the rice soup light and easy to digest.

I like to add kimchi to my Congee. It’s the perfect finishing touch to help me digest all of that delicious healing medicine.

So, don’t wait for sickness to come knocking at your door, you’ve got access to delicious ancient healing recipes to keep you vital, healthy and happy.

Enjoy!

[1] https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20191103-the-worlds-oldest-known-recipes-decoded

[2] https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/630174-oldest-written-recipes

[3] https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(12)65320-8/fulltext

[4] https://site.theqiinstitute.com/blog/2013/01/31/article-white-rice-is-the-great-equalizer/

[5] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/shiitake-mushrooms