DAYAL’S?Carrot Coconut Soup Recipe

UNIQUE   INSPIRING TASTE

Gluten-free, vegan, soy-free, vegetarian — odds are someone with a food sensitivity will be sitting around your table enjoying a meal this get-together. Why not make a soup everyone can love? This Dayal’s soup is creamy, satisfying and flavorful —

For me, soup is all about comfort; that first sip (or in some cases slurp) when tucking into a hearty bowl and wiping up last drops with a tear of fresh roti/ slice of bread. The experience is full of coziness, security and nourishment. It's a one–bowl meal, often needing no adornment or flashiness. But, because it's a simple food, it can be tough to get it just right.

 This  is  how  I  do  it. 

( I spend a fair  bit of time in the  kitchen.) Most of these herbs are in my garden.

A little  spicy  perhaps  but  your  taste  will never  be  the  same  again.

Your time  has  come   to  experience it.

 A WORD  TO  THE  WISE. IF  YOU HAVE  FOOD  ALLERGIES… BE  AWARE, I RECOMMEND  YOU  SEE YOUR  DOCTOR IN CASE  OF  EMERGENCY.

The “right” ingredients include warming herbs and spices like ginger, garlic, turmeric and green  chillies  masala paste, combined with creamy coconut,  carrots, tomatoes and sweet potato for a bit of sweetness.

This Dayal’s  soup is simple to prepare – make it in big batches so you’ll have some leftover to freeze. It’s particularly suited for all  seasons but, really, you can enjoy this soup any time of year.

Did You Know?

 This Dayal’s  soup recipe is made of real whole-food ingredients that support optimal health?

Healthy ingredients include ginger, garlic, onions, turmeric, coconut milk, carrots, and sweet potatoes, basil, tomatoes. Chillies,coconut  milk, cinnamon  and nutmeg  optional.

Photo Credit: Hungry Munchers

You can prepare and cook this nutritious soup in just 30 minutes or less.

This is a great recipe for a lunch or a light dinner along with some bread/roti and a side salad, or a first course for an elegant dinner.

 What Makes Dayal’s Carrot Coconut Soup So Good for You?

 TWO  WORDS   WHOLE  FOODS .   Each ingredient in this Dayal’s  soup is real; there’s no modified food starch, potassium chloride, soy protein isolate, caramel  colour, or monosodium glutamate (MSG), which are examples of the additives commonly found in canned soups.

 Coconut Milk

 Coconut milk is made from the expressed juice of grated coconut meat and water. About 50 percent of the fat in coconut oil is lauric acid, which is rarely found in nature. Your body converts lauric acid into monolaurin, a monoglyceride that can actually destroy lipid-coated viruses such as HIV and herpes, influenza, measles, gram-negative bacteria, and protozoa such as Giardia lamblia.

Lauric acid is a type of medium chain fatty acid (MCFAs), which is easily digested and readily crosses cell membranes. MCFAs are immediately converted by your liver into energy rather than being stored as fat.

There are numerous studies showing that MCFAs promote weight loss, including one study that showed rats fed MCFAs reduced body fat and improved insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.1

Yet another study found that overweight men who ate a diet rich in MCFAs lost more fat tissue, presumably due to increased energy expenditure and fat oxidation from the MCFA intake. In addition, coconut milk is rich in antioxidants and nutrients, including vitamins C, E and B vitamins, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and iron.

 Carrots

Carrots  are rich in beta-carotene (pre-vitamin A), vitamin C, and calcium. I generally recommend eating carrots in moderation because they contain more sugar than any other vegetable aside from beets.

However, when eaten as part of an overall healthy diet, the nutrients in carrots may provide you with protection against heart disease and stroke while helping you to build strong bones and a healthy nervous system. In particular, carrots are associated with a 32 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease and a lower risk of heart attacks in women.

Antioxidants in carrots, including beta-carotene, may also play a role in cancer prevention. Research has shown that smokers who eat carrots more than once a week have a lower risk of lung cancer  while a beta-carotene-rich diet may also protect against prostate cancer .

Bone Broth

Homemade  bone broth  is a powerful food as it’s easily digestible, helps heal the lining of your gut, and contains valuable nutrients that promote healing throughout your body.

The gelatin found in bone broth is a hydrophilic colloid that attracts and holds liquids, including digestive juices, thereby supporting proper digestion.

Bone broth also reduces joint pain and inflammation courtesy of chondroitin sulfates, glucosamine, and other compounds extracted from the boiled down cartilage.

Amino acids such as glycine, proline, and arginine in bone broth all have anti-inflammatory effects, and bone broth contains high amounts of calcium, magnesium, and other nutrients that play an important role in healthy bone formation. Orange-colored sweet potatoes owe their appearance to the carotenoid beta-carotene. As an antioxidant, beta-carotene can help ward off free radicals that damage cells through oxidation, which can speed up aging and make you vulnerable against chronic diseases.

This antioxidant can help support your immune system, as well as lower your risk of heart disease and cancer. Research shows that sweet potatoes can help regulate blood sugar because of their ability to raise blood levels of adiponectin, a protein hormone created by your fat cells, to help regulate how your body metabolizes insulin.

Sweet potato extract is said to help reduce inflammation in brain and nerve tissue throughout your body. The phytonutrients within sweet potatoes also influence fibrinogen, an important glycoprotein required for blood clotting. Together with thrombin and fibrin, balanced amounts of fibrinogen are important for wound healing d blood loss prevention.

 

Photo Credit: Dark Cell

Onions

Onions are rich in sulfur-containing compounds and other phytochemicals that may boost heart health, offer protection against cancer and diabetes, boost bone health, and more.

They’re anti-allergic, anti-histaminic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant, and onions have a particularly high concentration of beneficial polyphenols, with more polyphenols than garlic, leeks, tomatoes, carrots, and red bell pepper.

Onions contain numerous anti-cancer compounds, including quercetin, which has been shown to decrease cancer tumor initiation as well as inhibit the proliferation of cultured ovarian, breast, and colon cancer cells.

 Garlic

Fresh garlic is a potent antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-fungal agent with immune-boosting effects. It’s thought that much of garlic’s therapeutic effect comes from its sulfur-containing compounds, such as allicin, which are also what give it its characteristic smell.

Other health-promoting compounds include oligosaccharides, arginine-rich proteins, selenium and flavonoids. Research has revealed that as allicin digests in your body, it produces sulfenic acid, a compound that reacts with dangerous free radicals faster than any other known compound. This is one of the reasons why I named garlic as one of the logivity  food.  

 Ginger

Ginger is one of the best natural remedies if you struggle with motion sickness or nausea, and it is a powerful anti-inflammatory, which makes it a valuable tool for pain relief. Ginger also has broad-spectrum antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant, and anti-parasitic properties, to name just several of its more than 40 pharmacological actions. 

In addition, ginger shows promise for fighting cancer, diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, asthma, bacterial, and fungal infections, and because it is a thermogenic substance, it also has beneficial impacts on metabolism and fat storage.

 Turmeric

 Turmeric, the yellow-pigmented "curry spice" often used in Indian cuisine, contains curcumin, the polyphenol identified as its primary active component and which exhibits over 150 potentially therapeutic activities, which include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties. Curcumin is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, which is one reason why it holds promise as a neuroprotective agent in a wide range of neurological disorders.

Researchers have investigated curcumin for its potential role in improving Parkinson's disease, for instance, along with dementia. Curcumin also has the most evidence-based literature supporting its use against cancer of any other nutrient studied, and it’s also shown promise for many other health benefits, from enhancing wound healing to protecting against cataracts.

 Basil

Other vitamins and minerals in basil include iron, calcium, manganese, magnesium, vitamin C and potassium. Not surprisingly, basil also has antibacterial properties and contains DNA-protecting flavonoids.
It's the flavonoids and volatile oils in basil that give it the most health benefits, the former protecting on the cellular level, with antibacterial properties related to its volatile oils. Among these are estragole, linalool, cineole, eugenol, sabinene, myrcene, and limonene, all capable of restricting the growth of numerous harmful bacteria, including listeria, staphylococcus, E. coli, yersinia enterocolitica, and pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Some antibiotic medications which have been found to be resistant to some of these strains have been inhibited by basil extracts. One of those oils - eugenol - can block the activity of the harmful enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX). This same effect puts basil in the "anti-inflammatory" category because it provides relief from related problems, such as rheumatoid arthritis.

 DAYAL’S  Carrot Coconut Soup

 This soup takes only about 30 minutes  or less to make, but is packed with flavor and nutrition:

Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes or less.  SERVE with  Tamarind  Chutney

Ingredients

2 large onion, chopped

1 Tbsp. + 3 cups bone broth

4 Tbsp. fresh ginger, sliced

6 medium cloves garlic, chopped or  crushed

1 tsp  turmeric  powder

3 cups sliced carrots, about 1-inch thick

1 cup sweet potato, cut into about 1/2-inch cubes

6 oz. coconut milk

Salt and black  pepper to taste 

Pinch  of  saffron

1 tea spoon  garam  masala

3 medium  size  ripe tomatoes

1 tea spoon green chillies   puree paste.

1 stick  unsalted  butter

Small  lime/ lemon  cut in small  quarters

Chopped  basil  ( tulsi ) leaves

Cinnamon  and  nutmeg  optional

Directions:

Chop onion and let it sit for at least five minutes to bring out its health benefits.

Heat   1 stick unsalted butter , 1 Tbsp. + bone broth in a medium soup pot. Sauté onion in broth over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often  adding sliced  tomatoes and fresh green chillies  puree paste.

Add garlic and ginger and continue to sauté for another minute.

Add  turmeric  powder and mix well with onions.

Add broth, carrots, and sweet potato and simmer on medium high heat until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes  slow  to medium heat.

Add coconut milk. Add basil ( tulsi ) chopped  leaves.

Blend in batches making sure blender is not more than half full. When it's hot, and the blender is too full, it can erupt and burn you. Add salt and black pepper to taste.

Return to soup pot and sprinkle  fresh  corrinder leaves   and  warm  the  soup pot.

Squeeze  some lime/ lemon  juice  into  your bowel  of  soup  as per your  taste.

Serves  5 -  6

RECOMMENDED   FRUIT  DRINKS  CHILLED:

POMEGRANATE ,   GUAVA    OR  COCONUT  WATER

“ BON  APPETIT “

 Welcome  for a second  serving…………..

 You  are invited  to  share  Dayal’s recipe. Your  comments (graciously accepted are a MUST