As Nutritional Therapist Julie Deeks explained in the last Nutritional Therapy post, there are a huge variety of nutrients in vegetables and fruit and these can help provide any number of health benefits including controlling cholesterol, keeping blood pressure levels steady, protecting our DNA from damage (damaged DNA leads to disease), supporting our immune systems and helping keep us at a healthy weight.
So here is one of Julie’s recipe’s that target certain nutritional deficiencies.
FENNEL AND CELERY SOUP RECIPE
This soup shouts spring and summer to me. I love soup so when spring and summer are here I start to create soup recipes that are lighter than the winter versions, like leak and potato and the heavier squash recipes and creamy ones. Fennel is great for digestion and celery brings out the flavour, high in potassium brilliant for those with high blood pressure and need extra when training. Bone broth is a great gut healing addition and provides lots and lots of minerals. It’s worth investing time with all the fine chopping! I hope you like it. If the chopping is a barrier, go chunky and use a blender once it’s cooked.
Ingredients
2 heads of fennel, thinly sliced
2 x 15cm stalks of celery, very thinly sliced
Olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of your pan – not too much, around 1 dessert spoon of good organic extra virgin olive oil
2 Courgettes, cut into quarters length ways, then thinly sliced
3 spring onions, thinly sliced (I usually take out the mushy seed part in the middle)
2 baby gem lettuces, separated and washed and shredded
100grams of frozen or fresh peas
800ml or more bone broth, chicken stock or veggie stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Zest of 1 lemon (unwaxed)
Method
In a pan, at the oil, fennel and celery and sauté, don’t brown them; just make them transparent, medium heat. Add on the lid and cook for 10mins stirring occasionally and making sure they don’t brown.
Add to the pan the courgettes, spring onion, lettuce and peas, then add in the stock and bring to a boil, cook for 5 mins, stirring occasionally, keep you eye on it and the heat medium to low once boiled.
Zest the lemon on top of the soup and season to taste. I love to serve this with a 1980’s prawn cocktail or avocado on Rye sourdough toast.
