Delicious Fresh Garden Soup

Even though it's kind of hot this time of year (kind of?), a good soup is always welcome in my house. 


If you're a nutritarian (or vegan, or vegetarian), you already know that soups are a mainstay. (Typically, when adhering to the plan 100%, a person will have a smoothie in the morning, a salad in the afternoon and soup at night -- so soups are important.)

Our garden is starting to explode, so it seemed like a good a time to harvest some vegetables for a fresh garden soup. If you have a garden just about any vegetable will do, from broccoli to kale to spinach to carrots. Be creative! Vegetables are good for you.

I'm going to tell you right now: this soup is delicious.

Keep in mind that not everyone in the house is nutritarian. It didn't matter; everyone who tried the soup loved it. Try it and tell me what you think!

Ingredients:

4 quarts of water
2 T Better Than Bouillon (or less or more, according to your salt tastes) (another vegan alternative is Not-Chick'n Bouillon Cubes --- use 1 or 2)
2 heaping T organic tomato paste (no salt added)
1 15 oz can organic diced tomatoes, or tomatoes from your garden
3 carrots, chopped
1 cup broccoli florets
1/2 a white onion, chopped
6 - 8 cloves of garlic, minced and left out for 45 minutes before use in soup**
2 cups spinach, cut or chopped
2 cups kale, cut or chopped
1 cup corn
1/2 cup black rice
1 15 oz can kidney beans
1 15 oz can pinto or black beans (really, any beans you love)
1.5 cups Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix (contains green and yellow split peas, barley, lentils and vegetable pasta)

Directions:

Add 4 quarts of water to pot and set to boil.

After all fresh vegetables are chopped, add to water, along with all beans, diced tomato, tomato paste and bouillon. Do not salt. Do not add garlic at this time. Once at a rolling boil for fifteen minutes, reduce heat to simmer (though not too low).

Cook this mixture approximately 1 to 1.5 hours. Once vegetables are cooked, add Vegi Soup Mix. You might like to bring up the heat on the stove if you've had it low, to aid in the cooking of the mix.

Wait an hour and then add rice and cook one more hour.

At the beginning of last hour of cooking, dice garlic and let sit for 45 minutes.** After this time add to soup and let cook for 15 - 20 minutes, or until soft.

This makes a thick, hearty soup. Some might like to add more water according to their desired consistency. Serve this soup alone or along side a spring salad or whole grain bread of your choice.

It really is amazing!

**A report by Science Daily explains that if raw garlic is first chopped and then allowed to sit for 45 minutes, it can produce allicin. Once allicin is produced by this raw garlic preparaton, the garlic can be cooked with minimal loss of allicin. According to this report, cooked garlic prepared in this manner is similar in its anti-cancer effects to raw garlic. Source 

Harvest time

Such a satisfying day.

There's nothing quite like being hungry --- really hungry --- and then foraging through the garden you built and grew yourself. Harvesting all manner of vegetables: radishes, tomato, lettuces, spinach, basil, peppers.  Washing them, cutting them, preparing a beautiful, delicious meal for your family, one that is organic, free of pesticides and full of fresh life force. Delicious!

From root: 

To table: 

(With the addition of organic strawberries, raw nuts and raw bleu cheese-- sigh!)

Eating nutritarian is delicious! You can eat all you want of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, along with some grains. Things you can grow with your own hands; things you can make without additives and extras. Good, clean food for your whole family.

Eating Raw While Cabin-Camping

I'm going away on a one-week camping trip (not full camping, but camping-with-cabins-and-showers, which I much prefer) and am trying to figure out what I will eat. There will be a community refrigerator (yay!) and perhaps a stove or oven, as well, which I will not need, except for tea -- which would be nice.

I'm not sure I can maintain 70-90% raw while I am away; I think I will have to depend on some cereals and foods like tortillas, hummus and the like. I think I'll probably be eating more like 50% raw, sticking to only those fruits and vegetables that will keep for a week. Things like:

apples
bananas (probably less than a week)
nectarines/peaches
broccoli
some lettuces/spinach
cabbage
avocado
onion
tomatoes (probably less than a week)
sprouts

I'll also include raw dehydrated fruits as well as nuts and seeds, a staple in any raw diet.

This week camping will potentially involve something like...hunger. This might be good for me, probably, as I've been too liberal with myself for the last one or two months due to moving and the rehabbing of a new house. In truth my raw percentage numbers have been pitifully low. This is evidenced rather predictably in frequent gastro-intestinal distress: the only time I am ever, ever regular or comfortable is when I eat raw. If I do not eat raw I either have a hard time going to the bathroom at all, or else get sick after every meal. Needless to say, it's a real drag.

My meals will consist of organic cereals and rice milk in the morning, raw fruit (dehydrated and otherwise), nuts and seeds during the day, and hummus-and-veggie wraps in the evening. I might include some raw cheese in the wraps just for excitement.

I'll check in after the trip to report back on how I did.

Summer Garden

The sunshine does wonders for me.

I dropped the top and drove around all day, ultimately landing at the garden store. Produce is ridonkulously expensive these days and I prefer to grow my own anyway, where I can. This midwest soil is bananas-good. And so I went and picked up my flats of Roma tomatoes, my sweet basil, my spinach, my (one, for the love of God) cucumber. I'll plant them tomorrow and within weeks will be eating my own harvest. I have to say, there's very little quite so satisfying. I make my own hummus and garnish it with my own cucumbers and tomatoes. I make mounds of bruschetta. I use the basil and Roma tomatoes, add mozzarella and then make tasty paninis . The spinach is new this year (I failed miserably with it last year) and if any of you know me, you know how I love spinach salads. So it's good. It feels and tastes very good.

Sunshine? Also good. You out there reading this? Probably totally vitamin D deficient. Don't feel bad because most of us are. But vitamin D acts as a well-being hormone within us; it actually has the ability to make us feel better, lighter, calmer. Vitamin D deficiency has also been linked to a variety of maladies/conditions. So get your fifteen minutes, people, or supplement if you need to. And eat those veggies. And eat that fruit!

Meanwhile I'll take pictures of my garden and the things I make with my harvest.

Stay tuned.

Out in the garden

Snapshots from today in the garden.
I was very excited to get in there and get my hands dirty.

I wear this outfit nearly every time I garden, and have for years.
Because I'm a farmer and all.

***

The garden was overgrown and dry.
Still, the Greek oregano managed to come back
like gang busters, as did the sage.


***
Getting my hands dirty. Gardening is actually hard work, yo.
After hours of this kind of squatting as well as all the shoveling and angling,
my body aches. It's a good ache, though.


***
Final result. I prioritized this year, only planting the things I knew I would use.

It's been a good day.