Silky soup can be so tasty you’ll forget it’s good for you
All the excitement of December is over and now that most blah of all months, January, is here.
You may be feeling a little bruised mentally and physically and have made resolutions. Have you bought a gym membership yet? I didn’t think so.
With or without resolutions, what you really need is a tonic soup.
When it comes to cultural boundaries and food, the two are thankfully blurry and we can create our own feel-good soup mash-ups.
Warmed with lots of ginger and blended into a silky puree, they go down smoothly and are great for sipping out of a cup.
We all know that garlic, ginger and green vegetables are good for us and they feature in these soups.
Turmeric, which gives mustard and curry powder their golden glow, is used in Indian Aryuvedic and traditional Chinese medicine for its anti-inflammatory effects.
Back to the resolutions: If you were thinking of a diet clean up, these tonic soups are paleo, vegan (by using vegetable broth or water), Whole30 and gluten free.
And if you think New Year’s resolutions are a pile of hooey, these soups are delicious, warming and nourishing.
HOW TO PUREE SOUP
I’ve had some pretty gnarly pureed soups. They fell into an unpleasant textural limbo. A food processor will not do a good job of pureeing soup.
For safety, let the soup cool down to warm. Strain the solids from the soup, saving the liquid. Fill onethird of the blender with the solids and enough of the strained liquid to come 1-inch (2.5 cm) over the solids. Remove the cap from the lid and place the lid tightly on the blender container.
Drape a towel over the lid and blender. If steam from the soup shoots the liquid up, the towel will prevent it from splashing out.
Turn on the blender and gradually increase the speed to full speed. If the blender is struggling with its contents, turn it off and add more liquid through the top of the lid and replace the towel. Blend until completely smooth. Scrape the soup into the pot it was cooked in and continue blending, remembering to switch all the blender buttons to the lowest speed before turning it on again. You may have liquid left after pureeing. Heat up the soup and check the thickness.
If you are happy with the thickness of the soup, don’t add the remaining liquid. If you want the soup thinner, add the reserved liquid, topping it up with more broth or water until it’s the right consistency for you.
This is another advantage of using this method to puree soup. Keep in mind that the soup will thicken in the fridge overnight if you are not serving it right away.