Cauliflower & Sweet Potato Soup (Vegan Optional)
Hello You beautiful Souls!
Autumn is clearly my favorite time of the year. The endless shades of colors on the leaves and how the sun reflects on them. There is something magical about the clear brisk days, the smell of wood burning in the fire place, pumpkin everywhere, apple cider, hot chocolate for the kids, smells of cinnamon when you walk into a grocery store. Warm and cozy clothes and wrapping yourself in a blanket with a hot cup of tea or bone broth (yum!). This is also the time of the year which I love cooking the most. Comfort foods and holiday meals. The minute I feel the shift in the weather and I feel my fingertips and toes staying cold, I want to make soup and bake anything with pumpkin. I will be sharing many of my holiday favorites but first soup!
Sipping on broths and making soups are very sacred to me. They not only feed my soul but there was a time when my body could only handle soups, predominately bone broth (more on bone broth on another blog). The lining of my gut was so inflamed that I had leaky gut. For those of you that have never heard of leaky gut – it’s when the digestive tract’s barrier becomes too permeable, allowing allergens, toxins, incompletely digested proteins and fats, not normally absorbed, to “leak” out of the intestines into the blood stream. This triggers an autoimmune reaction, which can lead to abdominal bloating, excessive gas and cramps, fatigue, food sensitivities, joint pain, skin rashes, and autoimmunity.
Some factors that may contribute to inflammation include:
- A high-sugar, low-fiber, processed, nutrient-poor, high-calorie diet which causes bad bacteria and yeast to grow in the gut.
- Undetected gluten intolerance, celiac disease or low grade food allergies (such as dairy, eggs or corn)
- Overuse of antibiotic medications
- Overuse of medications like acid blockers (ex. Prilosec, Nexium) and anti-inflammatory medicine (aspirin, ibuprofen)
- Food Additives
- Food Allergies
- Chronic low grade infections, yeast overgrown or parasites
-Toxins, such as mold or mercury
- Stress
This first soup I made for the season is simple with only 5 ingredients, quick and can made vegan as well! If you have home made bone broth on hand, I recommend you make it with bone broth – it adds a delicious layer of flavor to it not to mention chalk full of collagen, amino acids, vitamins & minerals. If not, any type of broth will work and it will still be nutritious and tasty!
Cauliflower & Sweet Potato Soup (Vegan Optional)
INGREDIENTS
1 head cauliflower – chopped
1 medium sweet potato – chopped
4-6 garlic cloves
4 cups bone broth (I also like to use chicken broth or vegetable for vegan)
5 slices of bacon – cooked and chopped into bite size pieces (omit if vegan)
bacon fat – reserved (omit if vegan)
sea salt & cracked black pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
- Add the first four ingredients together and bring to a boil.
- Use a immersion blender and puree everything until smooth. (If you don’t have an immersion blender – I recommend you get one immediately!! It is so quick to puree soups not to mention with all the other attachments you can use as a mixer, etc.. and practically no clean up.
- You can also use a blender: add soup in batches, blend to puree and transfer to another pot.
- Add sea salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour in individual soup bowls and top with 1 TBLS bacon and drizzle ½ tsp of bacon fat (optional)
Coming up....
Events:
Paleo & Thanksgiving : Saturday, November 4th, 1:30pm-3:30pm at Grey Owl Mind-Body Studio
Breathwork & Meditation: Sunday, November 12th, 6:00pm-7:30pm at Grey Owl Mind-Body Studio
Bone Broth Demystified: Saturday, December 2, time TBD at Grey Owl Mind-Body Studio
More information, email me at dena.imani@gmail.com