Vegetable soup with parsley & turmeric
Serves 4 (or 2 people & 2 lunches worth)
Prep 10 mins
Cook 40 mins
Vegetarian
Can be frozen
You are certainly on your way to 7-a day if you incorporate this super healthy soup into your day.
PARSLEY – I tend to put parsley on everything. It’s versatile, tastes great, it’s cheap and it’s health benefits are amazing. The vitamin C content is higher than oranges. It’s packed full of antioxidants and can help neutralise carcinogens. It’s also great at neutralising garlic breath!
TURMERIC- The turmeric gives the soup great warmth so would be perfect for taking to work in a flask to keep you toasty! There has been much press coverage around turmeric and it’s benefits of late. Turmeric can rapidly increase the antioxidant capacity in your body, which will really work along side the sweet potato, carrots, and parsley in the dish.
Turmeric contains curcumin which has been linked to prevention and possible treatment of cancer. For anyone that suffers with depression, curcumin was also found to be as effective as Prozac.
RICE BRAN OIL – A great cooking oil alternative. Containing no cholesterol, including plant sterols, and antioxidant rich vitamin E.
Ingredient
3 cloves garlic
3 carrots
3 celery
3 onion
3 tbsp parsley
1 ½ tbsp turmeric
1 sweet potato
1 leek
1 bay leaf
1 vegetable stock melt / cube (made up with 1ltr water)
1 tbsp rice bran oil
1 tsp herbes de provence
Instructions
- Prepare your vegetables by chopping them finely. Keep your carrots, celery, and onions together as we will begin by frying these first in rice bran oil on a medium to low heat for 10 minutes.
- Add all the remaining ingredients except for the parsley. Increase the heat so the soup reaches boiling point, then reduce and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Take off the heat, remove the bay leaf, and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
- At this point I then use my hand blender, but you really could use a blender or food processor if you do not have a hand blender. I got mine for a fiver from my supermarket. Blend until smooth. Stir in the parsley, and serve.
Time Saver – The base of this soup uses 3 stable ingredients that should always be stocked in your kitchen. Onion, celery and carrots form the base for many sauces, ragus, gravy and soups. To reduce your chopping time, most supermarkets offer a frozen bag combined of these 3 useful ingredients.
Experiment – If you have a surplus of veggies that you need to use up, go ahead and chuck them in this versatile soup. It may change the colour and consistency, but will enrich this already super healthy soup even further.
