Finger-Lickin’ Good Paleo Chicken Soup

My homemade chicken soup is probably the best thing I make. I always make a big batch when my boyfriend, Clinton, or I feel sick. I try to use mostly organic produce, premium filtered water and organic, free range (and pastured if I can find it!) chicken breast and drumsticks (for the bones). I find that chicken breast gives the soup a really nice flavour and whenever I make it with no breast and just the drumsticks, it doesn’t taste the same and isn’t as good.

The secret ingredients to my soup are as follows:

• Ginger
  • Aids digestion, relieves nausea, eases headaches and sore throats
• Garlic
  • Reduces length of common cold, reduces blood pressure, improves bone health
• Turmeric
  • Anti-inflammatory, helps prevent cancer, aids against depression
• Paprika
  • High in vitamin A, vitamin E and iron
• Cumin
  • Aids digestion, improves immunity against the common cold
• Pink salt (I use either Himalayan rock salt or Murray River salt)
  • Regulates water content in the body, promotes a healthy pH balance, promotes blood sugar health
• Black pepper
  • Improves digestion and intestinal health

Not only are all of these ingredients super healthy for you, but also make soup taste ah-mazing! These ingredients, along with all the vegetables and chicken, make for a hearty and healthy cold and flu cure!

This soup is mostly paleo, but I use about a teaspoon of butter and coconut oil to fry up some of the vegetables. If you want this to be a paleo dish, simply add more coconut oil to replace the butter. Also replace the potato with more sweet potato or pumpkin. Some paleo eaters include sweet potato whereas others do not.

This recipe serves four.

Ingredients:

• Coconut oil (for frying)
• Butter (for frying)
• 1 leek
• 1 brown or red onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 knob of ginger
• Sprinkling of turmeric
• Sprinkling of cumin
• Sprinkling of paprika
• 2 carrots
• 2 potatoes
• 1 sweet potato (I didn’t have a sweet potato so I used more potato)
• ¼ pumpkin
• 1 handful of snow peas or beans (I had leftover snow peas in the fridge)
• 1 small head of broccoli
• Any other vegetables you want to add – zucchini, brussel sprouts, squash etc.
• 2 chicken drumsticks (I didn’t have any drumsticks in the freezer so I didn’t add any this time)
• 1 chicken breast
• Sprinkling of dry or fresh rosemary
• Enough filtered water to cover the vegetables
• Massel chicken stock (powder)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 large handful of spinach (to serve at the end)

Method:

1. Slice the leek and the onions (not too big, can be small if you’d like), cut the garlic and ginger into small pieces.

2. Add butter and coconut oil to a large saucepan or pot on a medium heat and add the leek and onions and fry until soft. Add the garlic and ginger now.
   

   Fry the leek and onion until soft and add the garlic and ginger.

3. Wait a few minutes and add turmeric, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Stir and cook the spices with the vegetables.

Add the spices and stir into the vegetables.

The vegetables should turn a yellowy colour from the spices.

4. Add the carrot, potatoes and pumpkin (and sweet potatoes if using) and cook on low to medium for about 7 – 10 minutes.

Cook the carrot, potatoes and pumpkin (and sweet potato if using) for 7 – 10 minutes.

5. Prepare the snow peas, broccoli and any other vegetables you are adding while you wait. Also cut the chicken breast into small cubes and sprinkle on some fresh or dry rosemary to the chicken pieces.

Add the snow peas and broccoli (plus any other soft vegetables you are adding).

Sprinkle rosemary onto the cubed chicken breast.

6. Add enough water to cover the vegetables and boil. Add the chicken breast and drumsticks (the boiling water will poach the chicken fairly quickly).

7. Wait for five minutes and add the remaining vegetables. Add in some chicken stock and more salt and pepper (I like to add about 2-3 tablespoons of chicken stock so add as many or as little as you like depending on the flavour).

The pepper, pink Himilayan salt and chicken stock that I use to flavour my soup.

8. Let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes or until you want to serve. If you are letting the soup simmer for a long time, add the broccoli about 20 minutes before you serve if you like it crunchy!

Add the snow peas and broccoli (plus any other vegetables you are adding).

9. Dish up the soup into bowls and evenly distribute a large handful of spinach over the top of the soup.

Add some fresh spinach and enjoy!

10. Enjoy!

I hope you like this recipe and if you are having it when you feel sick then I hope it makes you feel better. Happy cooking!

Jordie xo

The Perfect Human Diet: Film Review

I recently watched the documentary The Perfect Human Diet.

The documentary began with presenter CJ Hunt explaining how he suffered a heart attack at a young age and how his heart condition has affected his health. He also explains how this led him to search for a natural solution. He mentioned that he switched to a vegan diet but after a few years of eating this way he was lacking energy and wasn’t feeling as good as when he first started the diet. This led to him beginning a ten-year search for the perfect human diet.

Even though the film was loaded with scientific facts, they were presented in an understandable way, which made it a captivating film to watch. The film features a lot of different scientists, archaeologists and professors.

One very interesting scene shows Professor Loren Cordain describing to CJ how much we have changed over time. Professor Cordain used a hundred yard football field as a time line where he discussed how far and where we travelled over the world and what other foods we have introduced into our diet. He also discussed how our diets have greatly changed since we began farming and processing our food.

The paleo diet consists mostly of fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, eggs, lean meats, poultry and fish.

The Perfect Human Diet closely follows the paleo diet, which consists of animal proteins (chicken, fish, beef etc.), fruits, vegetables, eggs and nuts. It is important that the produce you eat is of high quality* (grass fed beef, pastured free range chickens, organic fruits and vegetables and raw nuts that do not have salt/coatings added). Grains (bread, cereal, pasta), dairy and sugar are not allowed on the paleo diet as science shows that our bodies are not designed to eat this type of food.

The part of the documentary that I found most interesting was when CJ interviewed Dr Lane Sebring who has been recommending the natural diet of our ancestors to his patients, who are seeing great results. Dr Sebring and CJ head off to a local supermarket to go through the aisles to find out which foods to eat when on this diet and which foods not to eat.

Another aspect of the documentary that I found interesting was the different scientists opinions about how our bodies and brains have developed over time from the introduction of proteins (from animal meat) and omega three fatty acids (from fish) into our diets.

I really enjoyed this documentary and I highly recommend watching it. I knew a bit about the paleo diet before I watched this film but it was still really interesting to see the science behind it all.

I’d love to hear if anyone has seen this documentary or is living a paleo lifestyle, so please comment below if this is you!

Jordie xo

*If you are looking for high quality, grass fed and free-range meats, Grass Roots Urban Butchery has a large selection of high quality, local meats. http://www.grub.com.au/ourfarmers.aspx

Another great website to visit if you are looking for local free-range and pastured chicken is the Flavour Crusader: http://flavourcrusader.com/blog/2011/09/free-range-chicken-australia/#qld

If you want to find free range meat and eggs that are ethically raised then visit http://www.humanechoice.com.au to find a farm near you!