Once a month, I try and find time to prepare this hearty, healthy, nutritious and antioxidant rich soup. It’s full of different colorful vegetables which provides different types of vitamins, minerals and nutrients a child’s and our bodies need. This soup is also a great immune system booster. I especially try and make this soup during the flu season or when I notice a lot of people are starting to get sick. Hey, it might even be beneficial to a child before his/her vaccines as it can help boost their immune system.
I make a batch of this soup and reserve a few ladle fulls in a separate glass food storage container for my child and place it in the refrigerator. I serve it to him, with a tablespoon and a half of organic yogurt twice a day until it’s all done (which might take about 2 days). In addition, I serve the rest to my husband and myself for dinner and the leftovers go in the refrigerator for lunch the following day.
If you ask me, the time it takes to make this healthy soup is ALL worth it.
Here is a list of some of the vitamins and minerals this soup contains:
Broccoli: Folate, Antioxidant, Vitamin A, Vitamins C & E, fiber
Carrots: Beta-Carotene (Vitamin A), Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Fiber
Sweet Potatoes: Beta-Carotene (Vitamin A), Vitamin C, fiber, vitamin B-6, potassium, Antioxidant
Red Peppers: Vitamin A, Vitamins C&E, folic acid, fiber
Side note: red peppers are said to have the most nutrients compared to other peppers since they are on the vine the longest
Kale: Fiber, Folate, Vitamin B, Potassium, Calcium, Zinc, Vitamins C&K
Turmeric: anti-inflammatory, antioxidant.
Chicken Breast: Protein, zinc
For additional information, please refer to the following links:
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/ss/slideshow-immune-foods
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/antioxidants-your-immune-system-super-foods-optimal-health
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/kale-nutrition-and-cooking#1
http://www.webmd.com/diet/peppers-health-benefits#1
Step By Step Instructions
How to Make the Broth:
In addition to the organic chicken breast and water, the following are also needed: 2 organic carrots, 1 organic onion, 2 organic garlic cloves, 1 bay leaf, 8 peppercorns, a few stems of organic cilantro and 1 tablespoon of salt.
To prep it, scrub and peel the carrots. Then, cut them in half. Remove the skin off of the onion and cut it into four pieces. Remove the skin off of the 2 garlic cloves. Set them aside.
When dealing with raw poultry, always immediately wash your hands thoroughly. Also, immediately wash anything (like surfaces, utensils, bowls, et cetera) that touches the raw poultry so the bacteria doesn’t spread.
Place the two chicken breasts into a large pot and cover it with water. Use as much water as needed to cover the chicken. This water will be discarded so the quantity doesn’t matter. This is going to give the breasts a quick rinse.
Cover the pot with a lid and bring it to a boil. At the same time, I added 10 cups of water to a tea kettle (as shown behind the pot) and place that over high heat to bring it to a boil.
Once the water with the chicken breasts comes to a boil, carefully dump the water out in the sink. Be careful of the steam. Bring the pot back to the stove top. Using a few sheets of paper towels folded up a few times so you don’t burn yourself, carefully clean the white bits off of the interior of the pot. Once cleaned, should look like the picture on the right. Throw the paper towels in the trash can and wash your hands.
Carefully add the boiling water from the tea kettle into your pot with the chicken.
Add the carrots, onion, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns, cilantro, and 1 tablespoon of salt to the chicken and the water.
Bring the water to a boil. Lower the heat to medium low and allow it to simmer until the chicken’s internal temperature registers to 165 degrees with a food thermometer which can take about 30-40 minutes.
Remove the chicken from the pot and place a food thermometer to measure the internal temperature of the chicken. The middle of the chicken breast measured to be a few degrees over 165 degrees. So I knew it was cooked through.
Continue to simmer the vegetables on low heat (without the chicken) for an additional hour. This will continue to provide great flavor to the broth.
After the chicken has rested for about 5-10 minutes, cut it into bite size pieces or into pieces that you feel comfortable to feed your toddler.
As the broth continues to cook, it’s a great time to get the vegetables ready for the soup. Vegetables needed for the soup are one sweet potato, one carrot, one red pepper, one head of broccoli. Scrub the vegetables under cold water and peel their skins off, including the red pepper.
Another option, to save myself some time, I actually scrubbed, peeled and diced these vegetables the night before and stored it in the refrigerator.
Dice them in a size that you feel comfortable feeding your toddler. Mine were thin and fine diced.
Since I had prepped them the night before, I placed them in a glass bowl, covered it with plastic wrap and stored it in the refrigerator until I was ready to use it.
Now back to the broth
Place a large heatproof bowl in the sink that can hold over 10 cups of liquid. Place a mesh strainer over the bowl. Carefully pour the broth with the vegetables into the mesh strainer. The vegetables will remain in the mesh strainer while the liquid will strain into the bowl. Place a different bowl under the strainer to catch additional liquid as you walk to toss the vegetables away in the trash can.
Set the bowl with the broth aside. Your tasty broth is ready.
How to Make the Soup:
In that same pot as the broth was cooked, add 2 tablespoons of organic coconut oil over medium heat. Add half of a diced onion to the oil.
Once the onions start to lighten in color, after about 3-5 minutes, add 2 finely minced garlic cloves. Stir. Cook the garlic for about 1 minute. Don’t cook it for too long or else it will get bitter.
Add your chopped vegetables (sweet potato, broccoli, red pepper, carrot) and the chopped chicken breasts. Stir and allow it to cook for a couple of minutes. Stirring frequently. After 3 minutes, I added 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric and gave that a stir as well.
Carefully add the prepared broth to your pot of vegetables. Give it a stir.
Bring it to a boil. Once it starts to boil, lower the heat and cover it with the lid. Allow this to cook for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, prep the spaghetti. I added about 10-20 spaghetti pieces. Not much is needed.
Break the spaghetti up into smaller pieces, as shown on the right.
Once the 30 minutes is up, add the broken up pieces of the spaghetti to the soup. Give it a stir and cover the pot with the lid. Allow the soup to cook for 10 more minutes.
After the 10 minutes, remove the leaves of the kale from its stems and finely chop the leaves. Add the leaves to the soup. Stir and cook the soup for an additional 10 minutes.
After the 10 minutes, add the finely chopped cilantro and squeeze in half of a lemon making sure the seeds don’t go into the soup. Give it a stir. Allow that to cook for about 5 minutes. Season it with salt and pepper to taste. Turn off the heat and allow it to sit for 10 minutes.
The soup is done. It’s hot so be careful when serving or placing them into their storage containers.
I ladled a few cups of the soup into a glass food storage container and stored it in the refrigerator for my child to eat the following day.
When I was ready to serve it to my child, I added 1 cup of the soup from the glass storage container and placed the rest back into the refrigerator. It was really cold so I placed it in the microwave for 20 seconds. It shouldn‘t feel hot at all. The soup should be cold or lukewarm. Not hot.
I added 1 1/2 tablespoons of Organic plain yogurt. The yogurt not only provides an additional layer of taste, but it also provides probiotics and calcium.
I gave that a stir and fed it to my toddler. He loved it a lot.
Recipe
It may not be mentioned, but most of the ingredients used are organic
Broth Ingredients:
- 2 Organic Chicken Breasts
- 10 cups of filtered water
- 2 carrots
- 1 whole onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 peppercorns
- few cilantro stems
- 1 tablespoon of salt
Soup Ingredients:
- 1 sweet potato
- 1 carrot
- 1 red pepper
- 1 head of broccoli
- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
- half of an onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
- small amount of spaghetti
- 2 kales
- handful of cilantro
- half of a lemon
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
How to Make the Broth:
To prep the vegetables for the broth, thoroughly scrub the carrots under cold water using a vegetable scrub. Then peel the skin off of the carrots, cut the ends off, and cut each carrot in half. For the onion, cut the ends off and remove the skin. Cut the onion into 4 pieces. For the garlic, cut the ends off and remove the skin.
Set these vegetables aside, along with the 1 bay leaf, 8 peppercorns, a handful of cilantro stems and 1 tablespoon of salt.
A good reminder: When dealing with raw poultry, always immediately wash your hands thoroughly. Also, immediately wash anything (like surfaces, utensils, bowls, et cetera) that touches the raw poultry so the bacteria doesn’t spread and cross contamination doesn’t occur.
Place the two chicken breasts into a large pot and cover it with water. Use as much water as needed to cover the chicken. This water will be discarded so the quantity doesn’t matter. This is going to give the breasts a quick rinse. Cover the pot with a lid and bring it to a boil. At the same time, add 10 cups of water to a tea kettle and bring that to a boil over high heat.
Once the water with the chicken breasts comes to a boil, carefully dump the water out in the sink ( you may use a strainer to facilitate the process). Be careful of the steam. Bring the pot back to the stove top. Using a few sheets of paper towels folded up a few times so you don’t burn yourself, carefully clean the white bits off of the interior of the pot. Once cleaned, throw the paper towels in the trash can and wash your hands.
Carefully add the boiling water from the tea kettle into your pot with the chicken. Add the prepared carrots, onions, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns, cilantro and 1 tablespoon of salt to the chicken and the water. Cover the pot with the lid and bring the water to a boil. Lower the heat to medium low and allow it to simmer until the chicken’s internal temperature registers to 165 degrees with a food thermometer which can take about 30-40 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot and place a food thermometer to measure the internal temperature of the chicken. The middle of the chicken breast measured to be a few degrees over 165 degrees. So I knew it was cooked through.
Continue to simmer the vegetables on low heat (without the chicken) for an additional hour. This will continue to provide great flavor to the broth. After the chicken has rested for about 5-10 minutes. Cut it into bite size pieces or into pieces that you feel comfortable to feed your toddler. Set it aside.
As the broth continues to cook, it’s a great time to get the vegetables ready for the soup. Vegetables needed for the soup are one sweet potato, one carrot, one red pepper, one head of broccoli. Scrub the vegetables under cold water and peel their skins off, including the red pepper and the broccoli’s stem (if you plan to use it). Dice them in a size that you feel comfortable feeding your toddler. Mine were thin and fine diced. Place the diced vegetables into a bowl and set it aside.
Another option, to save myself some time, I actually scrubbed, peeled and diced these vegetables the night before. I placed them in a glass bowl, covered it with plastic wrap and stored it in the refrigerator until I was ready to use it.
Now back to the broth:
Place a large heatproof bowl in the sink that can hold over 10 cups of liquid. Place a mesh strainer over the bowl. Carefully pour the broth with the vegetables into the mesh strainer. The vegetables will remain in the mesh strainer while the liquid will strain into the bowl. Place a different bowl under the strainer to catch additional liquid as you walk to toss the vegetables away in the trash can.
Set the bowl with the broth aside. Your tasty broth is ready.
How to Make the Soup:
In that same pot as the broth was cooked, add 2 tablespoons of organic coconut oil over medium heat. Add half of a diced onion to the oil. Sautee it stirring frequently for about 3-5 minutes or until the onions lighten in color. Add 2 finely minced garlic cloves and give that a stir. Cook it for 1 minute. Don’t cook the garlic for too long or else it will get bitter.
Add your chopped vegetables (sweet potato, broccoli, red pepper, carrot) and the chopped chicken. Stir and allow it to cook for a couple of minutes. Stirring frequently. After 3 minutes, add 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric and give that a stir as well.
Carefully add the prepared broth to your pot of vegetables. Give it a stir. Bring it to a boil. Once it starts to boil, lower the heat and cover it with the lid. Allow this to cook for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, prep the spaghetti. Not much is needed. Maybe about 10-20 pieces. Using your fingers, break the spaghetti up into smaller pieces.
Once the 30 minutes is up, add the broken up pieces of the spaghetti to the soup. Give it a stir and cover the pot with the lid. Allow the soup to cook for 10 more minutes.
After the 10 minutes, remove the leaves of the kales from its stems and finely chop the leaves. Add the leaves to the soup. Stir and cook the soup for an additional 10 minutes.
After the 10 minutes, add the finely chopped cilantro and squeeze in half of a lemon making sure the seeds don’t go into the soup. Give it a stir. Allow that to cook for about 5 minutes. Season it with salt and pepper to taste. Turn off the heat and allow it to sit for 10 minutes.
The soup is done. It’s hot so be careful when serving or placing them into their storage containers.
I ladled a few cups of the soup into a glass food storage container and stored it in the refrigerator for my toddler to eat the following day.
When I was ready to serve it to my toddler, I added 1 cup of the soup from the glass storage container and placed the rest back into the refrigerator. It was really cold so I placed it in the microwave for 20 seconds. It shouldn‘t feel hot at all. The soup should be cold or lukewarm. Not hot.
I added 1 1/2 tablespoons of Organic plain yogurt. The yogurt not only provides an additional layer of taste, but it also provides probiotics and calcium.
I gave that a stir and fed it to my toddler. He loved it a lot.
