Healing broth for my love - FruitsAndVeggiesMonday 🍵

You all know this: the beloved man starts to sneeze and immediately he is seriously ill! There is just a small step from: "I feel I am getting a cold." to "I am very, very ill. It feels like I have a pneumonia ... 🤒😷🤧 

We had this situation last week. With an irresistible and very suffering doggy look he asked me to for chicken soup because he remembered that he was served this in the past and it always seemed to help. Well, I couldn't fulfill this wish, of course not! But I definitely wanted to do something and started some reserch about the benefits of chicken broth, what exactly makes it so helpful during a cold and how I could make a plantbased alternative.

This post contributes to @lenasveganliving's foodcontest #fruitsandveggiesmonday. See here original post here: STEEMIT FRUITS AND VEGGIES MONDAY COMPETITION

I found out that there is no study that identifies the exact ingredients in the chicken soup and how they really work on the body. They were all guessing more or less. The only thing that every study seemed to be sure about is that it seems to help somehow... What I noticed, that most of the studies didn't test a simple bone broth but a soup cooked with the animal products and huge amounts of different vegetables like onions, sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, carrots, celery stems, parsley, salt and pepper. To me that sounds like the combination of the different vegetables add a huge amount of healing nutrients that provide lots of vitamins and minerals. It's not necessarily the chicken! (I am sure it's not!) The scent of soup, the aroma, spices and heat from the soup could help clear sinuses and improve symptoms of infection and respiratory problems. Sipping hot fluids helps to warm the bottom of your nasal pharynx can also help improve symptoms. And it increases hydration what is also important during a cold. 

My job was it to cook a powerful mineral-rich plantbased broth that carries the essence of vitally nutritious vegetables, herbs and spices in a way that was easy for the body to digest, assimilate and utilize. These were the ingredients I used ...

Ingredients: Leek, carrots, onions, garlic, fresh parsley, shiitake mushrooms, kohlrabi, fresh hot pepper, fresh ginger and fresh tumeric and whole black pepper.

Carrots help to relax muscles and steady nerves, Leek, onions and garlic have powerful antiviral & antibiotic properties. Parsley and shiitake contain an excellent bioavailable form of iron which helps to keep your blood strong and prevent anemia. They are also rich in zinc which is highly beneficial for treating viral issues and strengthening the immune system. Kohlrabi like every sort of cabbage also boosts the immune system. Ginger & turmeric root helps reduce inflammation. Black pepper increases the the effects of the tumeric. Capsaicin, which is the ingredient in the hot peppers that make them actually hot, has potent antibacterial properties that fight and prevent chronic sinus infections or sinusitis. 

I didn't peel the ingredients much, just washed them carefully and cut into pieces roughly, coverd with cold water, brought to boil and let it simmer on medium heat for at least one hour. Then I drained the vegetables and kept the broth for the next day because Inbetween the hubby was already sleeping like a baby and snorring like a bear i  hibernation ... 😍

The other day I cut some more fresh vegetables to add even more nutrients to the soup and let them cook until ready. To complete the hot soup lunch I added some precoked quinoa and served it with my selfmade parsley oil I made for my my last SIC contribution: A creamy snow white Soup and a Hirsotto.

The hubby recovered quickly. It was like a miracle how he rose from mortally dull to fresh as a daisy! 😜

So what is the moral of the story? To summarize: the best treatment for the common cold is good nutrition, enough sleep and hot fluids. Plus if there is someone who cares about you so much to make you a delicious, hot steamy soup, that will make you feel comfortable and loved and that will definitely help you to get well very quickly. ❤️❤️❤️